


Orpheus

by eyegnats



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Dimitri is trapped in a magic hellfortress and Felix is the only one who can rescue him, F/M, Faerghus is allergic to therapy and the deconstruction of gender roles., Fighting Other People's Inner Demons, HTML-Heavy, Inner Demon Fighting, M/M, Minor Ingrid Brandl Galatea/Sylvain Jose Gautier, Mythos-Inspired, No Byleth 3-Way Truce Post-War AU, Plot-heavy, The Yuri/Felix is there for narrative reasons I promise I'm not just being indulgent., Wandering Mercenary Felix, Yuri Backstory, image-heavy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:13:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23602126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyegnats/pseuds/eyegnats
Summary: There are stories in Faerghus of knights scaling endless, hostile fortresses in search of their long-lost beloveds.When Dimitri locks himself away inside the Silver Maiden with the aid of unknown magic, Felix is called home to help.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Yuris Leclair | Yuri Leclerc
Comments: 25
Kudos: 82





	1. Lost

**Author's Note:**

> Borrowed the CSS tabling idea and dimensions from [gadaursan](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8631214/chapters/21337784?style=creator).

Felix is only a half-step into his rented room when his instincts flare with danger. His eyes narrow in their search for an explanation. They catch on a foreign shape in what little moonlight seeps through the window. There is someone inside, silhouetted and sitting in the dark, a leg propped over the other. Felix darts forward. His sword is unsheathed in an instant—drawn and ready and pointed at a pale neck.

|  **YURI**  
You know, you are a very hard man to track down.  
---|---  
  
The man does not flinch at Felix’s offensive stance. If anything, Felix catches the fleeting glint of a smile.

|  **FELIX**  
Who are you.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Yuri. Hi.  
|  **FELIX**  
You have three seconds to spit out a reason why I shouldn’t slit your throat right here.  
|  **YURI**  
The maid of this establishment works hard enough, friend. Let’s not make her clean up more bodily fluids than strictly necessary.  
|  **FELIX**  
A better reason.  
|  **YURI**  
Not a man of the people I see. Alright, then. I’m here on the word of one Margrave Gautier.  
  
Felix allows his shoulders to drop ever so slightly.

|  **FELIX**  
And what does a Margrave want with me?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
‘A Margrave,’ I’ll tell him you said that. Though I’m sure he won’t be too surprised his old school buddy is still out here playing mercenary.  
|  **FELIX**  
I am a mercenary.  
|  **YURI**  
Hah. You’re a mercenary like a lost, pureblooded hound is a stray.  
|  **YURI**  
And I’ve seen my fair share of strays. You just need a bath.  
|  **FELIX**  
Did Margrave Gautier send you here to insult me, too.  
|  **YURI**  
Believe it or not he did tell me to give you a hard time.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’ll send him your tongue in thanks.  
|  **YURI**  
Don’t threaten me.   
|  **YURI**  
Friend.  
  
Yuri lifts two fingers and gently tips Felix’s sword away from his jugular.

|  **YURI**  
Now then. Shall we talk business?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Who do you work for.  
|  **YURI**  
No one.  
|  **FELIX**  
Bad answer.  
|  **YURI**  
Ah-ah. Relax. I run a particular subset of underground networks. Nothing you should concern yourself with.  
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain is keeping unsavory company, then. He would be that foolish.  
|  **YURI**  
Sylvain? So informal. So friendly. Good to know I’ve got the right man.  
|  **YURI**  
...It is Felix, right?  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **FELIX**  
What do you want with me?  
|  **YURI**  
If you would have asked me that question a week ago, I would have requested an easier trail to follow behind.  
|  **YURI**  
Clean jobs, quick kills. Happy customers. Small towns. Not a single stiffed bar tab or gossiping prostitute in your wake. And you call yourself a mercenary.  
|  **FELIX**  
You waste a lot of your time talking to prostitutes?  
|  **YURI**  
That’s less of an insult than you’re intending, I assure you.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’ll ask one more time. What do you want.  
|  **YURI**  
I take it rumors from the Kingdom haven’t quite reached this humble Alliance village.  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t keep an ear out.  
|  **YURI**  
Your king’s missing, long-lost Fraldarius.  
  
Felix blinks. His hand adjusts on his blade, but does not lower. He clenches his jaw.

|  **FELIX**  
...That boar.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Boar?  
|  **FELIX**  
He’s missing? How do you lose a king?  
|  **YURI**  
Missing is something of a misnomer. We know where he is. It’s reaching him that’s proving difficult.  
|  **FELIX**  
How so.  
|  **YURI**  
Let’s just say he’s locked himself in his room and thrown away the key.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not in the mood for a riddle.  
|  **YURI**  
Fine. He’s got a full barricade of unknown magic on top of an already impregnable holdout. Simple enough for you?  
|  **FELIX**  
Where is he?  
|  **YURI**  
I believe you’re familiar with the fortress they call the Silver Maiden?  
|  **FELIX**  
Arianrhod.  
|  **YURI**  
He was visiting there on civil business. Next thing we know, the whole place locks up tight and goes dark overnight.  
|  **YURI**  
Alongside the Rowe family and their extended residents, Dimitri’s kingsguard, personal retainers, and royal mage were all with him inside. You should know a few of those players from school, I believe.  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **YURI**  
What’s with that expression?  
|  **FELIX**  
...House Rowe.   
|  **FELIX**  
Your face.  
|  **YURI**  
Oh? My face? Should I prepare to be flattered?  
|  **FELIX**  
Underneath all that mess. You’re one of the Rowe children. The adopted ones. That’s where I’ve seen you before.  
|  **YURI**  
It was less of a mess before I trudged all the way out here to recruit your sorry assistance.  
  
Felix finally pulls his sword away with a huff, and slings it back into his sheath. He laughs a single, bitter laugh.

|  **FELIX**  
After all this you’re just another noble’s son trying to drag me back.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Pathetic.  
|  **YURI**  
That’s reductive.  
|  **FELIX**  
So you didn’t come here as a favor to House Rowe? You, what was the word, ‘trudged’ here to find me of your own volition?  
|  **YURI**  
I am no longer of House Rowe. I have personal stakes. In seasons of uncertainty the people in my circles are the first to be hit and the last to recover.  
|  **FELIX**  
That’s not my problem. Leave.  
|  **YURI**  
No.  
|  **FELIX**  
Now.  
|  **YURI**  
I told Gautier I’d bring you back with a bow.  
|  **FELIX**  
This is his problem.  
|  **YURI**  
Sylvain’s?  
|  **FELIX**  
Dimitri’s.  
|  **YURI**  
Don’t you want to help?  
|  **FELIX**  
No.  
|  **YURI**  
Well we’re asking for your help. Where’s that innate Fraldarius loyalty I’ve heard so much about?  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not leaving my life to go coax an animal out of his cave.  
|  **YURI**  
You don’t understand. There’s dark magic afoot.  
|  **FELIX**  
And if Dimitri is a worthy king he will conquer it.  
|  **YURI**  
You don’t think he’s worthy?  
|  **FELIX**  
You don’t think he’s going to win?  
  
The conversation falls to silence and, after a beat too long, Yuri shrugs.

|  **YURI**  
I’d prefer better odds.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
The Kingdom is in crisis. A dead king is negligible, workable, but a mad king that’s locked himself in an isolated border fortress? What does a nation do with that?  
|  **FELIX**  
The Boar has always done as he pleases at the cost of anything in his path.  
|  **FELIX**  
They are fools if they act surprised now.   
|  **YURI**  
In my opinion, this might not be entirely of your Boar King’s doing.  
  
Felix pauses.

|  **FELIX**  
What do you mean?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Foul plays often go uncalled.  
|  **FELIX**  
You think something’s wrong.  
|  **YURI**  
It’s uncharacteristic, is all. Even for him.  
|  **FELIX**  
...You think this is against his will.  
|  **YURI**  
I do.  
|  **FELIX**  
Is he being held in there?  
|  **YURI**  
I’m not supported by any evidence, mind you, only Seiros knows what’s going on inside.  
|  **YURI**  
I’m talking a hunch, here. A conspiracy, even. Wouldn’t that be fun?  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **FELIX**  
You think somebody has captured him. In that plain of sight.  
|  **YURI**  
And framed it as an already fragile king finally snapped, yes.  
|  **FELIX**  
Who.  
|  **YURI**  
Who knows.  
|  **FELIX**  
Why?  
|  **YURI**  
I presume to cause the kind of desperate, widespread chaos an enterprising someone or some-nation can seize power within. Would you like to help us figure it out?  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not a noble. I’m just a sellsword now.   
|  **YURI**  
I don’t need a noble or a sword. I need King-bait.  
  
The term almost slaps Felix across the face.

|  **FELIX**  
You’re not winning my assistance with words.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
I didn’t come here to seduce you.  
|  **YURI**  
Unless you’d like that, of course.   
|  **FELIX**  
No.  
|  **YURI**  
I suppose even I pale in comparison to a King.  
|  **FELIX**  
Hmph.  
|  **YURI**  
Strike a nerve?  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t like your implications.  
|  **YURI**  
I am not implying anything. I’ve been informed, and by reliable sources mind you, that if King Dimitri was to be lured out by anyone it would be yourself.   
|  **YURI**  
And that if he is indeed a captive, then you might be the only man in the Kingdom strong enough to pull him out unscathed.   
|  **YURI**  
Hardly a sellsword, hm?  
  
Felix glances out towards the ajar door to his room. The Kingdom was a couple days’ ride away and if Yuri was accurate, the situation had been escalating throughout the week. Surely Sylvain had found a solution by now. Surely Dimitri would emerge, broken and low on rations, eventually.

|  **FELIX**  
No.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not going.  
|  **YURI**  
Ah.  
|  **YURI**  
Final answer?  
|  **FELIX**  
Get out of my room.  
|  **YURI**  
Hm, Gautier thought it might come to this. He said you’d fight against your best instincts until your very last breath.  
|  **FELIX**  
He can leave me the hell alone.  
|  **YURI**  
I’ll get out of your hair now.  
|  **YURI**  
But if I may, I do have a parting message from The Margrave.  
|  **YURI**  
He told me to tell you that Ingrid of House Galatea is one of the knights trapped inside with The King.  
|  **YURI**  
And that if you were willing, he would very much like to see his wife again.  
  
  
  


  
  


-

They make the trip in two days, the tips of war tents gracing their vision in the last light of the second. It’s an impressive distance made more impressive by the fact that Felix was fairly sure Yuri did not know how to ride a horse.

He sits stiffly on it, shoulders squared and body fighting against every dip of a hoof. Yuri has grown increasingly irritated with both Felix and the horse over the course of their journey. It would be funny, if Felix was not so ungodly miserable.

|  **YURI**  
We’re here. You can stop laughing at me now.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re projecting.  
|  **YURI**  
You keep glancing over like I’m an animal that’s decided to walk on two legs.  
|  **FELIX**  
For a son of Faerghus you ride like a snake trying to walk on four.  
|  **YURI**  
I am no son of Faerghus.  
|  **FELIX**  
Let’s stop talking before I admit we have something in common.  
  
Felix pulls his leg over the top of the saddle and rides standing in a stirrup for a few yards, The height provides a better overview of the landscape. The outfit of blue and checkered tents is a half-dozen stone’s throws away from them. Beyond the tents, a massive fortress rises from the earth. It looms tall and casts a boxy shadow over the entire encampment. The Silver Maiden stands with the notions that so often followed her mere mention: bold, impregnable. A deafening presence, and one shimmering with magic in the fading sun. 

The stationed troops are thin but those around the perimeter glance up at Felix’s arrival. They make no move to welcome him as either the inherited Shield of Faerghus or a threat. He hops off effortlessly, his feet finding soft grass and his horse stalling a few paces after. Yuri pulls up on his reins too hard and his horse knocks its head back and bays.

|  **YURI**  
Fuck.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I take it you don’t travel often.  
|  **YURI**  
I have people for this, usually.   
|  **FELIX**  
I’m sure you have swarms of shady men hanging on to your every command.  
|  **YURI**  
Your attempts to insult me continue to be ineffective. And after I heard so much praise for your sharp tongue.  
  
Felix removes his saddle bag containing the entirety of his possessions and slings it over his shoulder. He takes his horse by the bridle and presses forward. Yuri scrambles from his own horse, sliding off the side like a man descending down a jagged cliff. He huffs when his boots hit the ground and moves to follow.

|  **FELIX**  
These are war tents.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Absent a war, of course. We aren’t so desperate as to order a siege on our own King.   
|  **FELIX**  
War tents send a message.  
|  **YURI**  
You didn’t strike me as a man too concerned with branding.  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t want Sylvain’s lack of detail orientation being mistaken as declaration.  
|  **YURI**  
Relax. Margrave Gautier ordered the assistance of several high-ranking mages from the Royal School of Sorcery. Alongside the knights working to recover their liege, there are also squires, cooks, servants, merchants, and messengers to provide for.   
|  **YURI**  
We’re playing with a full deck. Our allies deserve at the very least a comfortable place to sleep for their contributions, don’t you think?  
|  **FELIX**  
Where is he.  
|  **YURI**  
You always ask me such direct yet vague questions.  
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain.  
|  **YURI**  
The Margrave should be having dinner in his quarters around this time. I can show you, if you’d stop walking so fast.  
  
Felix realizes he’s strode halfway through the camp with no goal other than to catch a glimpse of familiar red hair. He stops his pacing, and turns to see where Yuri is gesturing for knights to retrieve their horses.

|  **FELIX**  
Take me to him.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Would you like a meal yourself?  
|  **FELIX**  
Now.   
|  **YURI**  
So bossy. I’m not sure you can even muster the subservience to follow me.  
  
Felix does, barely, matching Yuri’s pace as they weave through the war tents towards a stark blue one marked with the crest of Gautier. It’s bigger than the rest, and cleaner. Yuri pulls the tent flap and calls inside.

|  **YURI**  
Hey, Margrave. I brought you something.  
---|---  
  
Felix sees dinner plates yet to be cleared away and he sees a lance, golden-boned and terrifying, leaned up haphazardly against the canvas wall.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Yuri?  
---|---  
  
Sylvain is, was, reading a stack of parchment at a desk. He stands—catches sight of Felix.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Felix!  
---|---  
  
Felix has not been embraced in so long that his body reacts violently to the contact. He squirms in the arms that wrap around him, shouldering Sylvain’s chin away where it attempts to settle in the crook of his neck.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Felix, you’re here.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain. Hello.  
|  **YURI**  
What a happy reunion! I want an uptick on my finder’s commission. He was an asshole.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I tried to warn you.  
|  **YURI**  
That’s no compensation.  
  
Sylvain pulls back but keeps his hands planted on Felix’s biceps, holding him in place and grinning.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
You really came.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Look at you. Your hair’s getting long again.  
|  **FELIX**  
How could you let this happen?  
  
Sylvain’s smile recovers after only a second of shock.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
I’m trying my best here, man.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Your best looks like a summer camp set up outside a prison.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I was in the middle of negotiating a grain hoarding dispute across the country when this happened. What would you have me do?   
|  **FELIX**  
Better. There must have been signs he was going downhill again.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
You don’t think I’m considering that now?  
|  **FELIX**  
He has tells. Triggers.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
You don’t think I’m cycling through every interaction I’ve had with Dimitri over the past year for signals that something was off? That it was all going to crash down again?  
|  **FELIX**  
He’s not that hard to read.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
For you.  
|  **FELIX**  
For anyone. If we find a bloodbath in that fortress I hope it falls on your conscience.  
  
Sylvain’s hands drop from Felix, his eyes sinking with an unprecedented crease of hurt that pushes Felix off his guard.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Ingrid’s in there.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m aware.  
  
Yuri coughs, gently.

|  **YURI**  
I’m going to step outside.  
---|---  
  
Felix does not break eye contact with Sylvain, even as the tent flap opens and closes again. The two of them are squared off, abrasive and defensive, posture threatening.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Why did you come.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Why. If you were just going to act like this.  
|  **FELIX**  
Something’s off and I don’t like it. Ingrid would never agree to help Dimitri with something on this scale. That’s insane.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Ingrid would slit my throat if The King told her it was for the good of Faerghus.  
|  **FELIX**  
Someone’s behind this. Someone’s been planning this.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
And that’s all well and good to theorize about but in the meantime, Felix, I’m trying to keep a Kingdom together without a King.  
  
Sylvain is tired. Felix can see it despite their standoff. His eyes are sunken and his movements lack the fluid confidence he so often carried. Sylvain is tired and Kingless and doing the work of ten men. Doing the work of a Fraldarius.

|  **FELIX**  
What’s the plan then, Margrave?  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
If you want to be a mercenary so bad then you’ll do as I say when I say it. I brought you here as a soldier, not an advisor.  
|  **FELIX**  
Do you even know how to get inside?  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
We’re working on that. Arianrhod’s been reinforced with some kind of magic wall. Impenetrable, for the moment, but we’re working on it.  
|  **FELIX**  
So you don’t know how to get inside.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
We’re trying. I don’t know what else to tell you.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I’m trying.  
  
Felix takes a long, even breath and backs down from his stance.

|  **FELIX**  
I see that.  
---|---  
  
Sylvain does not respond. It eats at Felix, little mouse teeth scratching into his chest. Felix struggles to lower his head and his voice. He says:

|  **FELIX**  
I’m sure she’s fine.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I know she’s fine.  
  
Sylvain still does not respond. He rubs his hands down his face and then blinks, a few times, centering himself.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
I don’t.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
She is.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I don’t know that.  
|  **FELIX**  
She’s fine.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
She’s pregnant.  
  
Felix falls still. The silence stretches onwards into a vast, uncomfortable distance.

|  **FELIX**  
…  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
She’s…  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
It was supposed to be an informal King’s visit.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
They were just going to raise morale. She didn’t even bring Lúin.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
We’d spoken about her taking time off but I didn’t even think twice about...  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **FELIX**  
She’s fine. She’s stronger than both of us.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’ll work for low pay. I’ll follow orders. We’ll get her back and I’ll be out of your life. I promise.  
  
Silence.

|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain. That was uncalled for, earlier.   
---|---  
  
Sylvain nods to this.

|  **FELIX**  
I’m sorry.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Rare words from you.  
|  **FELIX**  
I want to help.  
|  **FELIX**  
I owe the two of you that much.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
But not enough to do it for free?   
|  **FELIX**  
No.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
And not enough to not be an asshole to me?  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m working on that.  
  
Felix shifts with discomfort and Sylvain fronts a false smile.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
I do so love to see you struggle with basic human decency, Felix.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I told you I was sorry.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Don’t worry. I’m not going to hold anything against you in the middle of… all this.  
|  **FELIX**  
We’ll get her back.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
We will.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
And we’ll get Dimitri back for you, too. Since you’re so damn upset about it.  
  
Sylvain ignores the scoff that leaves Felix’s throat with the force of a man being punched in the lungs. Instead he turns his back to Felix, walking towards a trunk in his room. He kneels down to unlatch it.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
I’m glad you’re here. I don’t care if it’s for Ingrid or him or the lingering sense of intense guilt you feel about abandoning your homeland. That’s all really none of my business.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m disgusted you’d think I’d be so sentimental.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Yeah, I figured that was the case. C’mere. I’ve got something for you.  
  
Felix knows what it is the second Sylvain lifts the bundle from the depths of the chest. Flat and bulky and as cumbersome as ever. It glows softly when Sylvain pulls an edge of fabric wrap aside and his incompatible crest brushes against it. 

The Shield of Aegis is bright gold and freshly polished. It has been waiting for him.

Felix glares at it.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Go on. Take it.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Absolutely not.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
It’s been collecting dust in my trophy room since you gave it to me.  
|  **FELIX**  
I gave it to you so that you would use it.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I don’t know. It’s not really my style. A little gaudy, don’t you think?  
  
The shield's material hums when it is placed in Felix’s hands. The glow intensifies, burning a bright red in the grip of its rightful master.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
It suits you.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **FELIX**  
...I’m not coming back.  
|  **FELIX**  
You know that. Right?  
  
Sylvain waits a little too long to give him an affirmative nod.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
I do.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
But I need you to play the Shield of Faerghus for just a little while longer.  
  
Felix shakes his head.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
He’ll listen to you.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
If he’s truly gone mad, I mean. You can talk him down.  
|  **FELIX**  
And what if he’s being held inside against his will?  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Then I have no doubt that you will rip the beating heart from the chest of whoever is responsible.  
  
Sylvain’s laugh echoes across the empty tent. Felix ignores it. He flips his shield over to find the familiar brace and grip.

|  **FELIX**  
If that’s what you want from me.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Nah, nah, don’t put it on now.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Get some rest.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
You’re barely tolerable when you’re travelworn. I already knew that. I should have made you go straight to bed when you got here.  
|  **FELIX**  
I am not some irritable toddler to be put down for a nap.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
That’s debatable.  
  
Sylvain ushers him towards the exit to the tent, then. His family treasure burns hot under his palms.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Yuri should be around out there conveniently overhearing everything we’ve said this evening. He can show you to your quarters.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Are we trusting him?  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Yes. He’s a little rough around the edges but he’s a Rowe. Was a Rowe. He’s got family inside there just like we do.  
|  **FELIX**  
If you say so.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Take care of that shield, yeah?  
|  **FELIX**  
Sure.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
And Felix?  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes?  
  
They stop at the doorway, Sylvain’s hand already lifting up the flap.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Thank you for coming.  
---|---


	2. Perfect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Felix is such a dick for (gestures vaguely) plot reasons.

Felix finally settles his saddlebag and priceless shield on the floor of a tent with two cots. One is plain and empty. The other is unmade, a worn trunk stuffed beneath and the little table besides it littered with dozens of sweet-smelling glass vials. A mirror stands above the clutter. Pointed boots are scattered across the floor. Felix looks over at Yuri.

|  **YURI**  
Yes?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
This is your tent.  
|  **FELIX**  
I can tell.  
|  **YURI**  
It’s yours now, too. Congrats. We’re roommates.  
  
Yuri abandons Felix in favor of removing his travel coat and settling himself in front of a washbasin tucked in the corner. He pours water from a pitcher into the shallow dish, dipping a rag inside and scrubbing at his face.

|  **FELIX**  
Did you orchestrate this?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Don’t flatter yourself, Fraldarius. We’re just low on space.   
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not sharing my quarters with you.   
|  **YURI**  
You slept besides me on the road last night, didn’t you?  
|  **FELIX**  
Out of necessity.  
|  **YURI**  
I know it’s hardly your King’s quarters, but it will have to do. It’s more than the men in the temporary barracks get.  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **YURI**  
Such a sour pout. If you want a big fancy war tent with your crest emblazoned across the side you can take your noble title back and pay someone to put it up for you, just like Gautier.   
|  **YURI**  
Until then. It’s here or the stables.  
  
Yuri splashes a wave of water across his skin before turning towards Felix, expectant.

|  **YURI**  
Well?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Here.  
|  **YURI**  
Then welcome home.  
  
Yuri looks different without makeup. Less intimidating, and twice as exhausted. There’s a certain handsomeness to the raw underneath of his features. Sharp and alluring and unpowdered. He pulls a loose, cotton undershirt over his shoulders and reaches for a jar full of some kind of cream.

|  **YURI**  
Please stop staring at me. I’m no longer on a horse.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’ve never seen you without that mess on your face.  
|  **YURI**  
Can we not do this? I’ve had a long day.   
|  **FELIX**  
You actually look like a man.  
  
Yuri sets his jar down with a heavy clunk and snaps his head towards Felix. There is a streak of pale pink wiped across his cheek, a spark of anger in his eyes.

|  **YURI**  
Do you have a problem with me?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
No. Do you?  
|  **YURI**  
Every word out of your mouth is about either my intentions or my appearance.  
|  **FELIX**  
I assumed you wanted people to comment on it.  
|  **YURI**  
Well you’re wrong.  
|  **FELIX**  
Maybe you shouldn’t make such a show of it, if it bothers you so much.  
|  **YURI**  
I am not here to challenge the deepseeded Faerghus notions of what worthy men look like. I’m here to recover my siblings, possibly prevent a regicide, and leave.  
|  **FELIX**  
I really pissed you off, huh.  
|  **YURI**  
I have grown tired of you, Felix. I was looking forward to no longer having to interact with you. We could have kept things as lukewarm as they have been.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m getting the feeling you don’t want to share this room any more than I do.   
|  **YURI**  
Everytime you open your haughty mouth of yours I want to punch it. You talk like you’re still a noble.  
|  **FELIX**  
Do you want to take this outside? Right here?  
|  **YURI**  
You want to spar?  
|  **FELIX**  
For the tent?  
|  **YURI**  
You know what? Sure. For the tent.   
  
Yuri wipes a forearm across his face and stands. Felix sees sparks of magic flare at his fingertips when he clenches them. He stalks forward and shoulders past Felix on his way towards the exit. He leans close as he passes, voice deathly, and whispers:

|  **YURI**  
You don’t have to antagonize me so much, little Fraldarius. Everyone already _knows._  
---|---  
  
Felix is not himself when his fist shoots out for a dirty hit. He’s fast but Yuri is faster, a little flickered symbol lighting up across his face before he ducks down, braces his knees, and charges his shoulder directly into Felix’s stomach. Felix’s fist is ripped from its now-targetless directive and thrown backwards. He collapses back into the unslept cot, tipping it over and sending both of them sprawling to the ground. Felix ends up on his back, Yuri’s arm pressed across his collarbones.

|  **YURI**  
Don’t try to fight nasty, you purebred brat. You won’t like me without the formalities.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
You… You have a crest.  
|  **YURI**  
You think Count Rowe adopted me for my stunning personality?  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m thinking that’s more why he disowned you.  
  
Felix lifts a knee up to find the soft underbelly of his opponent but only catches Yuri’s palm, which immediately forces it back to the ground.

|  **YURI**  
I’ve got you pinned. Shut up and give in.  
---|---  
  
Felix struggles against the body on top of his. Grits his teeth and snarls, like an animal.

|  **FELIX**  
I’m not giving this up that easily.   
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
You’re even denser than you look if you think this is remotely about the tent.   
|  **FELIX**  
What are you looking for, an apology?  
|  **YURI**  
We can start there.  
  
Instead, Felix rocks his body sharply to the left and tips Yuri off balance. He snakes a leg around Yuri’s waist and uses his other as leverage to slam the man into the ground, flipping the pin. His hands find Yuri’s neck.

He breathes, hard.

|  **FELIX**  
I won’t apologize to rumormongering bastards.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
I’m not spreading the rumors, dumbass. I’m listening to them.   
|  **FELIX**  
You spread lies like you spread your legs.  
|  **YURI**  
I have it on good authority that you’re being a complete hypocrite right now.   
|  **YURI**  
Very good authority.  
|  **FELIX**  
You know nothing.  
|  **YURI**  
I know you two were close.  
|  **FELIX**  
And I know you were deemed unworthy of House Rowe. A cross through every box of honor and chivalry and lineage and piety—  
|  **YURI**  
Says the knight that fucked his king.  
  
A fire is coursing through Felix. It has been a long time since he has felt this furious, caught off guard in a country that has never been so upfront with its accusations. He seethes over Yuri with no retort, and no denial.

|  **YURI**  
Hah. That face. You really did it, didn’t you?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Even if I hadn’t heard about what you were up to during the war I could have figured it out on my own. Look at you. You’re a complete mess. You have been since I told you he was in danger. Am I right?  
|  **FELIX**  
He is my King.  
|  **YURI**  
All yours, huh? Is that why you couldn’t stay?  
  
Felix looms above him. Pieces of his hair have come undone and they hang down in dark, framing wefts. His eyes are wild. He cannot speak.

|  **YURI**  
Wow. Gettin’ kinda scary looking up there.   
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
I think I’ve escalated this more than I intended to. How about you let me up and we call it a one-one draw?  
  
Felix’s arm pulls back and his crest triggers, muscles constricted with the unholy strength that jets through his bloodstream. Yuri’s eyes go wide. His smug expression falters, and the canvas floor an inch from his face splits open with the impact of a fist. Felix’s breath is ragged but he holds his pin, his other hand half-imbedded in earth.

|  **YURI**  
Thank you for that show of restraint. You’re a real class act.  
---|---  
  
And then Yuri is darting upwards, slamming his forehead into Felix’s and shoving him off of his body. Felix manages to stand before Yuri is swinging, and the two of them settle into proper positions for a brawl. Felix’s fists hit hard but Yuri dodges more than he counters. He flourishes around—taunting, bored, and lightning fast.

Felix keeps pace but feels his energy draining with the relentlessness of it all. They stumble over the toppled bed and Yuri takes a bodyshot hard but doesn’t fall. Felix kicks for his legs and misses and Yuri tackles him, again. Felix reverses the momentum. He spins quick and shoves Yuri to the ground.

Yuri grins.

|  **FELIX**  
Call it.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
One-Two.  
|  **YURI**  
It should go without saying, but I am hardly one to judge. My tastes are well advertised.  
|  **YURI**  
If anything I’m jealous of the path you’ve cut out of this frozen, emotionally repressed hellscape. If only mine could have been so clean.  
|  **FELIX**  
We are not the same.  
|  **YURI**  
Sure, friend. Whatever you say.  
  
Stern hands grip Felix from behind and he is unceremoniously hoisted from his dominant position.

|  **SOLDIER**  
That’s enough.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
—!  
  
Felix whips his head over at the soldier that holds him. One of the patrol knights is dragging him back and out of the tent. He attempts to squirm loose and the man grunts with exertion.

|  **FELIX**  
Don’t you—Let me go—!  
---|---  
  
His attempts falter when he sees they are outside, now, and he looks out at a crowd of faces watching him. They stare out over lanternlight, each with shocked expressions. They are not soldiers but rather common folk with a few studious-types mixed in. They look recently-awoken.

|  **FELIX**  
…  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Good evening.  
  
A mildly battered Yuri steps from their tent with a smile for Felix’s captor.

|  **YURI**  
Thank you for your help, there. Appreciate it.   
---|---  
  
The soldier sets Felix back down on the ground with a stout huff. Felix tugs his shoulder away from him and starts towards his tent to retrieve his things. To go where, he doesn’t know. There is a murmur from the back of the crowd and a path to the left opens up. Mages and merchants step aside for an emerging bannerguard.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
What’s going on here?  
---|---  
  
Sylvain stands broad-shouldered and confident and not yet in his bedclothes despite the hour. He strides past his accompanying knights to face the disruption. When he sees Felix, his face drops to irritation.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
—Felix.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain.  
|  **SOLDIER**  
A fight broke out, Your Grace.  
|  **MAGE**  
There was a crash in the tent next to ours so we went out to investigate.  
|  **MERCHANT**  
We heard yelling from down the—  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I think I get the picture.   
  
Sylvain’s head rolls from Felix, to Yuri, to Felix again. Felix has never seen him so unimpressed.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Who threw the first punch?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Who do you think?  
  
Felix rolls his eyes.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Felix.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t want to hear it.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I asked you to come here to help me—not to cause more problems.  
|  **FELIX**  
We got in a fight. You’ve been in plenty.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
In situations far less dire than this.   
|  **FELIX**  
Why are we even trusting this sewer rat?  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
He is your ally.  
|  **FELIX**  
This is not a war and he is not my ally. He’s barely a citizen of Faerghus.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Who happens to know the entire layout of Arianrhod by memory. Because he fucking grew up here. What kind of grandstanding loose cannon bullshit are you on?  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
  
Felix looks to the faces around him, settles on Sylvain’s disappointment, and backs down.

|  **FELIX**  
It was a petty fight. That’s all.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
These people are working hard, here. They’re trying to sleep. They need sleep.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
And I need you to be dependable.  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m sorry.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
You already said that to me today.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Get it together.  
  
Sylvain signals a knight behind him.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Move a cot into my quarters. He can stay with me tonight.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t need a nursemaid.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
And I don’t need you starting a tavern brawl among my staff.  
|  **FELIX**  
I can control myself.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Clearly, you can’t.  
  
Felix feels like a berated child. Distantly, he feels the discomfort of the surrounding civilians at witness of an angry Margrave. But his shame runs deeper than that of a misbehaving recruit being scolded by a superior officer.

|  **YURI**  
Ahem.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
I should probably take some responsibility. If only so he won’t hate me so relentlessly after all this.  
|  **FELIX**  
Oh, so now you want to play friends?  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
One more word, Felix, and you’re out of this camp.   
  
Silence cuts across the crowd. Felix clenches and unclenches his jaw.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
My tent. Now.  
---|---  
  
  
  


—

Sylvain’s tent is as it was before. Felix sits on a new cot with his shield lying face-down at his feet.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
I can hear you gearing up to say something.  
---|---  
  
Felix scowls.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Lay down. You’re exhausted.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
He knew.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Get some sleep.  
|  **FELIX**  
He knew about me and Dimitri.  
  
Sylvain is straightening some papers at his desk. He reaches for the candle atop it, the only lightsource in the room, and carries it towards his bedside.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
All the more reason to not piss him off, Felix.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Did you tell him?  
  
Sylvain stills, and then looks offended.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
I wouldn’t do that to you.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
He said he had a reliable source.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Well it wasn’t me.  
|  **FELIX**  
Then how did he know?  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Maybe because you didn’t make much of an effort to keep it a secret?  
  
Felix’s anger sours to something more brooding.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Once you dragged Dimitri out of… wherever he was. You didn’t even sleep in your quarters for the back half of the war. People are smarter than you give them credit for.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I didn’t know if I’d see him live to the next day, much less long enough to help him go wife-shopping years down the line.  
|  **FELIX**  
I was trying to keep him alive. Keep him grounded. That’s all.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Hey, hey. You don’t have to explain yourself to me. Record shows that I never cared.  
|  **FELIX**  
There was nothing there to care about.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
It’s never as simple as you try so hard to pretend it is. Especially regarding you and Dimitri.  
|  **FELIX**  
Well I’ll take a spear to the side before I explain it to Yuri.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Maybe he already knows.  
|  **FELIX**  
He doesn’t.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
How you felt, I mean. How you’re feeling?  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Don’t make that face at me. It’s bedtime. Light’s out.  
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain, I—  
  
Sylvain blows the candle out and the two of them are blanketed in darkness.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
What?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
What if he’s dead.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
He’s not dead.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
If someone wanted Dimitri dead they would have shipped us his head by now. In a box. With a gloating note.   
|  **FELIX**  
Then what the hell is happening in there?  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Hm. That sounds suspiciously like a problem for tomorrow.  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Goodnight, Felix.  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I said goodnight, Felix.  
|  **FELIX**  
...Goodnight.  
  
  
  


—

Morning comes with a wave of cold dawn. Sylvain is gone early, eating a scarce breakfast and dressing himself in lightweight armor. He mutters something about meeting with an Alliance messenger. Something about the delicacies of political sidestepping being akin to talking down a spurned woman. Something about Archduke Claude probably wanting to know what the fuck is going on with the Kingdom’s titular King.

There is nothing for Felix to do. He ends up in a bath that is drawn for him by Sylvain’s servants. It’s warm, the portable tub small but efficient, and by the time Felix lifts himself from the water he determines he is feeling… clean. Cleaner, at least. Refreshed. There is a pit of anxiety deep in his chest but he is well-rested and clean and there is nothing else he can do but wait.

He clips up his wet hair and takes his time lacing up his clothing and adjusting his armor. He picks up his shield. It glints in the mirror above Sylvain’s washbasin. Felix bares his teeth at his reflection, but tucks the shield behind his back regardless. It will be for emergencies. And easily abandoned if it ends up weighing him down. He gives a final sigh and steps outside for the day.

Sunlight hits him. It’s too early for the fortress to block out the sun, and the result makes Felix’s eyes squint. Yuri is waiting for him. He’s sitting on a supply crate, his legs crossed, his face bored.

|  **YURI**  
Look alive, sunshine.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Don’t talk to me.  
|  **YURI**  
I have my orders and they include talking. Been waiting for you.  
|  **FELIX**  
Waiting for me.  
|  **YURI**  
The very same. Looks like some of our mages went and had a breakthrough over breakfast.  
|  **FELIX**  
With the barrier?  
|  **YURI**  
Yes.  
|  **FELIX**  
—They broke in!? Why didn’t you come get me?  
|  **YURI**  
Walking in on you in the bath would not do wonders for your already fragile opinion of me.  
|  **FELIX**  
That’s your own damn fault. Where’s Sylvain?  
|  **YURI**  
Still trying to convince foreign dignitaries everything is fine when it is most certainly not. Don’t worry, I think all those fancy magic professors are saving their grand presentation for the Margrave. We won’t have missed much.  
  
Felix starts walking towards the fortress, abandoning Yuri where he sits.

|  **YURI**  
Uh-uh. Left side, little Fraldarius.   
---|---  
  
Felix stops walking. He looks back at Yuri with a huff.

|  **FELIX**  
I suppose you want to lead the way, then?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Since you’re asking so nicely.  
  
Felix follows Yuri past rows of tents and over to the left wall of the giant castle fortress. A large, canvas lean-to has been constructed against where the magic barrier juts up from the ground. Felix has yet to be this close to it. It’s a vibrant, translucent purple where it catches on the sunlight. It shimmers with its foreign spell. Impregnable.

|  **ANNETTE**  
FELIX!  
---|---  
  
Tucked in the shade of the research lean-to, Felix catches sight of a familiar face. Annette races towards him with determination he has witnessed firsthand before—her boots hitting the soft grass with heavy, lifting strides as she prepares to launch herself upwards. She jumps and he has no choice but to catch her. His chest hits hers with a thud and she squeals happily, her arms encircling his neck.

|  **ANNETTE**  
Felix! Felix! You came!  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Not without considerable effort.   
|  **ANNETTE**  
Oh shush, Yuribird. He’s here, isn’t he?  
  
Annette slides down Felix’s front until her bootheels hit solid earth again. She steps back, her hands clapping together in her excitement.

|  **ANNETTE**  
Felix.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Hi, Annette.   
|  **ANNETTE**  
It’s been too long.  
|  **FELIX**  
It has.   
|  **ANNETTE**  
We missed you. I missed you. I’m so glad you—Well, I wish you didn’t have to come back to this. But I’m glad you’re here, okay?   
|  **FELIX**  
Okay.   
|  **ANNETTE**  
Smile for me, won’t you?   
|  **FELIX**  
…Alright.   
|  **ANNETTE**  
There we go.   
  
She stares at him, her eyes brimming and happy.

|  **YURI**  
Annette. Can I call you Annette or do you prefer Professor?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Professor.   
|  **ANNETTE**  
Annette’s fine.  
|  **YURI**  
Excellent. Annette, I heard you’ve got good news for us?  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Oh! Yes!  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Well, sort of. Mixed news. But it’s a start!  
|  **YURI**  
That sounds promising to me.   
  
Annette gestures them both to follow her into the little research tent. There are mages humming all around it, and Felix has to sidestep a few carrying stacks of rolled parchment notes.

It is no less busy inside. One full wall of the station is made up entirely of the adjacent barrier. It ripples where a few researchers poke and prod at it. Each attempt to break inside seems only to irritate. Beyond the transparent magic barrier Felix sees, ironically, an open entrance in the physical fortress. Its heavy doors are swung ajar and the checkered beams of its gate are lifted. He can even see a little into a desolate courtyard beyond the opening. It dangles in front of him, a vulnerable entrance just out of swordpoint.

Felix lifts a hand to the glossy purple barrier. He looks to Annette. She nods, and his gloves touch the unyielding shield. It feels as thick as stone beneath his fingers. 

He drops his hand.

|  **FELIX**  
Has there been any sign of life from what we can see?  
---|---  
|  **ANNETTE**  
We’ve been watching it non-stop. No movement. But one pretty little courtyard a giant mountain fortress does not make.   
|  **YURI**  
Whatever is happening, it doesn’t seem too concerned with taunting those of us left out of the fun.  
  
There’s a commotion from behind them, and all three turn to face the slightly puffing face of Margrave Gautier, jogging up to the research tent. He’s running at full speed across the field of research tents. He stalls at the edge of theirs, bracing his hands on his knees. His knightsguard chase after him in the distance. They arrive just as he is standing up with fresh caught breath.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Hello. Hi. I came as fast as I could.   
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Welcome.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Hi, Sylvain! Good morning!  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Yeah, great. Awesome morning. I am having a wonderful time. But just in case that’s a lie, please tell me you’ve got something for me, Annette.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
I sure have… Something, for you.  
|  **YURI**  
Ominous.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I’ll take it.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Right. Okay. I think it’ll sink in better with a demonstration.   
  
Annette faces the barrier and tugs off one of her long gloves. Her fingers are delicate underneath, small and dainty where they approach the reinforced magic. 

Felix catches Sylvain’s eye and nods a good morning to him. Sylvain dips his head back.

|  **ANNETTE**  
So. We’ve thrown just about every magical deconstruction technique we have at this thing with little to no consequence. Whatever spell it is, it’s either ancient or brand new.  
---|---  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Then we thought, if we can’t break it, can we bend it? So we refocused our efforts on manipulating the wall into allowing small objects past. Essentially, coaxing it to be malleable when placed under certain conditions.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
This also failed spectacularly.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
But! We had a happy accident in the process.  
  
Annette presses her hand forward. Her fingertips find the wall and hang there. Then, with a little pressure, they slip inside. Her hand sinks past the barrier with minimal effort. The boundary welcomes her in up to her wrist with only a mild ripple across its surface in complaint.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
...You did it.  
---|---  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Well.  
  
She presses her hand forward and the barrier hits the edge of her sleeve. The fabric stops. It presses against the magic and then, giving up, it begins to slide up her arm. There is nowhere else to go but up and past her elbow. Annette puts her entire bare arm through the wall but not her clothing, which bunches at her shoulder.

|  **ANNETTE**  
No inorganic material.  
---|---  
|  **ANNETTE**  
No metal, no textiles, no breakfast plates—which is something that probably isn’t very applicable to the situation but we did try.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Basically, if it’s not a living being it can’t go through.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
...Huh.  
  
Sylvain gazes at the demonstration, absorbing this news.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
No weapons, then.  
---|---  
|  **ANNETTE**  
No weapons. We’re still working. This is just a start.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
But we can get people in there. See what’s going on.  
|  **FELIX**  
If by people you mean a naked battalion of grapplers.  
|  **YURI**  
Hey, now. Let’s not be hasty. There’s only so many naked grapplers at our disposal and they’re probably not too keen to tastetest an unpredictable mountain fortress.  
|  **FELIX**  
We’re running low on time. They have a duty to their king and we have an opening.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Felix is right. We need to work inside these limitations.  
  
Annette pulls her hand back and her sleeve falls down her arm. She moves to replace her glove.

|  **ANNETTE**  
Sorry, Sylvain. We’ll shatter it completely. I promise.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
This is a lot, Annette. I couldn’t have done this without you. I couldn’t have gotten close.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Anything for an old friend!   
|  **ANNETTE**  
Isn’t that right, Felix?  
|  **FELIX**  
Regrettably.   
  
Yuri clears his throat. He’s raised a hand, slightly, from where his arms are crossed across his chest. He looks to Annette.

|  **ANNETTE**  
Oh, um. Yuri?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Hi. Quick question. Can I test something?  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Uh.   
|  **YURI**  
I just want to put my hand in.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Oh. Sure! I guess.  
|  **YURI**  
So I can touch it? All this hard work’s not going to break or anything?  
|  **ANNETTE**  
If you break it, that would be ideal.  
  
Yuri sets the tip of his glove between his teeth and pulls. It slides off easy, and Felix registers the calluses of a duelist across his fingers. He raises his hand up. It has a ring on its fourth finger, no longer hidden by the glove. He steps forward to dip it into the wall.

|  **ANNETTE**  
Oh, hey, you’ll want to take that off—  
---|---  
|  **ANNETTE**  
—Eeeeep!  
|  **ANNETTE**  
How are you doing that?!  
  
The ring slides through the barrier with no pushback. Annette rushes to Yuri’s side, buzzing with a rush of excitement and confusion. She grabs his wrist and pushes and pulls it. The ring glides past the barricade each time with no issue.

|  **ANNETTE**  
Yuri?! What are you doing?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
I’m not doing anything.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
You're doing something. You have to be doing something.  
|  **YURI**  
It was just a theory. A little history tidbit, that’s all.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
What are you talking about?  
|  **YURI**  
I believe the legend goes that Hero’s Relics were crafted from—  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Bones!  
|  **ANNETTE**  
They’re made from bones. They’re made from bodies.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
...This is a Hero’s Relic.  
|  **YURI**  
It is.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Which means—  
  
But Sylvain is already moving. He walks forward and places a gauntleted hand to the wall. It stops the armor and glove like stone but that doesn’t deter him from gazing past it and into the open courtyard. He has a wild look in his eye. A desperate brazenness that clings to his voice when he turns back to his knights and snaps:

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Bring me my lance.  
---|---  
  
He’s already unbuckling his armor.

|  **YURI**  
Whoa, whoa. Hang on a second.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I’m going.  
|  **YURI**  
I know you’re eager to strip down naked and parlay with your lovely wife but we need to devise a solid plan. We can’t have Margrave Gautier, active and current leader of the Holy Kingdom, sauntering in there solo.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
You're right. Felix?  
|  **FELIX**  
With you.  
  
Felix moves to unlatch his shoulderguard.

|  **YURI**  
That’s insane. We have no idea what you could be so bodily walking into. Can we revisit the naked grappler idea? On second thought, it could have legs.   
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
We have weapons.  
|  **YURI**  
Felix has a shield.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Anything’s deadly in his hands.  
|  **YURI**  
I have a ring. It’s handy but it’s hardly a blade. Surely you see the shortsightedness of rushing this.  
|  **FELIX**  
You're coming?  
  
Yuri’s brow furrows.

|  **YURI**  
...If you’re intent on going.  
---|---  
  
Sylvain lowers his head at him in acknowledgement.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
I’ll find a way to pay this ever-increasing debt to you, Yuri. I promise.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
We need to think this through. We can send a spy—  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
We’re going. We are the spies. If we need to retreat and regroup with new information, we will. But we strike now.  
|  **YURI**  
We have one lance. I have a little magic. Felix has, again, just a shield. Need I remind you whoever is behind this can manifest impenetrable barriers.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
They’re not looking so impenetrable anymore.  
|  **YURI**  
We have _one weapon._  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Um.  
  
The three of them refocus their attention on Annette. She had vanished to the far side of the tent during their discussion, but now re-emerges. She holds a hammer in her hand. It drags alongside her before she lifts it over her shoulder, proud.

|  **ANNETTE**  
I brought Crusher.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
...You brought Crusher.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Just in case.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I told you that you wouldn’t be fighting.   
|  **ANNETTE**  
Yeah, you did, but you never know when you might need a big magic hammer. That’s the philosophy I like to live by, anyway.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I can’t ask you to do this, Annette. You’re a Professor, not one of my soldiers.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
I’m here.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
I want to save them too.  
  
  
  


—

The four of them end up in the tent, ready to depart, less than an hour later. The sun is only slightly higher in the sky. All research staff and guards are excused for privacy and then the four of them are alone, gathered in a loose formation and waiting to enter the unknown. Felix stands around in his undershirt and pants. Sylvain keeps a heavy grip on his lance.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
We’ll strike fast. We resolve the situation if we can. If we can’t, we get out and reevaluate with expanded understanding. I don’t want anyone down.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
That means we stick together and watch each other’s backs, alright?  
  
Felix and Yuri glance at each other.

|  **YURI**  
Yep.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Got it.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
We’re with you, Sylvain.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Thank you.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
This is now the point of the war speech where I ask everyone willing to follow me to strip naked.  
  
There is some hesitance, and then the soft rustle of clothing. Felix’s gaze flits away from Annette. There is no room for propriety in situations like these but he tries to angle himself away from her as he pulls out of his clothing. He ends up with a direct view of a shirtless Yuri: scarred chest lean and overall confidence unchallenged despite his growing nakedness. Felix decides his best point of focus is the magic barricade ahead. He cements his eyes there.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Okay.  
---|---  
  
Felix restraps his shield to his arm. He hasn’t bothered to check, but he assumes they are all naked.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Ready?   
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
If I may, Gautier.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
This would be the time to speak if you’ve got something to say.   
|  **YURI**  
I don’t want to generalize Kingdom sensibilities but I am aware that the people of this great and holy land have certain… hang ups, when it comes to the human form.  
|  **YURI**  
At the risk of sounding crude I think we should all force ourselves to take a good, long look at one another.   
|  **FELIX**  
It wasn’t a risk. You sound crude.   
|  **YURI**  
I only ask so I don’t have to suffer the indignity of dying alone because no nearby ally wanted to glance in the general direction of my dick.  
|  **FELIX**  
You sound like a pervert.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
He’s right, though. He’s the only one that’s so much as looked within five feet of me the past few minutes.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
That’s not—  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Well. Maybe.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Sorry, Annette.   
|  **FELIX**  
I won’t let anything happen to you.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Then look at me.  
|  **YURI**  
Sixty seconds each. At least.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Fine. Sixty seconds. Go.   
  
Felix pries his head towards Annette. He’s never considered himself the stereotypical knight of chivalry but she’s—she’s Annette. She deserves better than to be roughly analyzed under the confines of battle preparation.

|  **ANNETTE**  
This is kind of silly, huh?  
---|---  
  
She smiles at him and he has to fight the urge to duck his head away in embarrassment.

|  **FELIX**  
A little. Yes.  
---|---  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Have you gotten taller?  
|  **FELIX**  
No.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
...  
|  **ANNETTE**  
...Hey, you want to make a deal?  
|  **FELIX**  
What kind of deal?  
|  **ANNETTE**  
I’ll actually look at your… thing, if you actually look at my chest.  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t like this deal.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
C’mon. We’re friends! You only have to lower your eyes, like, a foot.   
|  **FELIX**  
I can already see them Annette.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Yeah but you’re not focusing on them. I can tell.  
|  **FELIX**  
If I look down will you stop talking to me about this.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Totally.  
  
Felix glances down. Annette’s chest stares back.

|  **FELIX**  
Those are your breasts.  
---|---  
|  **ANNETTE**  
And that’s your thing.  
|  **FELIX**  
Let’s never talk about this again.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Really? I was thinking it would be a fun campfire story.  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Are you okay?  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t want you to take offense to this because you are genuinely beautiful and one of the kindest people I have ever met, but Annette. This is the longest sixty seconds of my life.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
You don’t have to be so proper, Felix! You’re a mercenary now. Remember?  
|  **ANNETTE**  
You’re supposed to be grizzled. And all grumpy. And happy to hang around naked ladies. Grrrrrrrrr.  
|  **FELIX**  
Grr.  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Hehe. Yeah. Like that!  
  
Behind them, Felix hears Sylvain and Yuri snicker. He looks over his shoulder to see them huddled and laughing together like schoolchildren, their heads angled down.

|  **FELIX**  
Are you two literally comparing dicks over there?  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
No.  
|  **YURI**  
Yes.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Maybe a little. He made a joke.   
|  **YURI**  
I did.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m calling time.   
  
He turns back to Annette.

|  **FELIX**  
I will not let anyone hurt you. No matter the state of undress.  
---|---  
|  **ANNETTE**  
Same to you!  
  
Yuri steps in front of him.

|  **YURI**  
My turn?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Hello, Yuri.   
|  **YURI**  
Hi, friend. This feels like a good time to call a ceasefire.  
|  **FELIX**  
Naked in a tent?  
|  **YURI**  
Naked in a tent and about to put our lives on the line for one another.   
|  **FELIX**  
Fair enough.  
|  **YURI**  
Really?  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes.  
|  **YURI**  
We’re clear?  
|  **FELIX**  
We’re short on viable manpower. There’s no room for grudges.  
  
Yuri smiles, and glances down ever so briefly.

|  **YURI**  
Way to be the bigger man.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I can’t believe I’m doing this with you.   
|  **YURI**  
Aren’t you curious?  
|  **FELIX**  
No.  
|  **YURI**  
Not even a little? Come on. Go ahead. Look.  
  
Felix looks down.

He’s not sure what he expects, but there’s a mundanity to Yuri’s body that surprises him. It is the body of any other man he’d see in the sauna or shared baths. Maybe a bit leaner, but altogether unassuming.

He grunts in acknowledgment, and turns his head away.

|  **YURI**  
Not so bad, is it?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
I understand I’m the only stranger here so I apologize for forcing myself upon you in all my slightly-above-average glory.  
|  **FELIX**  
Above average?  
|  **YURI**  
Let’s not get cruel. I thought we were having a bonding moment.   
  
Felix isn’t sure if his mandatory time has transpired or not but he pulls his attention away from Yuri to find Sylvain.

|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain. Save us.  
---|---  
  
Sylvain’s head pops up from where he had been chatting with Annette. Both their cheeks are flushed lightly in embarrassment but they seem altogether undisturbed.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Already?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
This’ll be quick, too.  
  
Felix scans over Sylvain and gives his oldest friend a firm nod. Sylvain mirrors his movements, and shoots him a smile.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Next time you’re in Gautier we should go up to the hot springs. Just like old times.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
It’s been a while since we’ve swam together.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Ah. I miss those days, sometimes.  
|  **FELIX**  
Sometimes.  
|  **YURI**  
...That easy, huh? I want your Gautier charm, Sylvain.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Don’t beat yourself up, Yuri. Getting Felix to be slightly less prickly around me has been a lifelong endeavor.  
|  **FELIX**  
We’re all naked. We’re all familiar. Are we going in there or not?  
|  **YURI**  
Are you volunteering to go first?  
  
Three faces look at him, curious. Felix shrugs away their expectations and steps towards the barrier.

|  **FELIX**  
Fine. Annette, am I good?  
---|---  
  
Annette steps forward. Her hammer is propped up on her shoulder. It swings with her walk but holds steady. She takes Felix’s hand, the one not wrapped up in his shield.

|  **ANNETTE**  
Let’s go together.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Alright.   
  
Hand in hand they approached the barrier. Annette takes the lead and presses her body forward with a slight push. Her hammer does not catch on the barrier. Felix puts his forehead to it, and follows. 

The wall had felt impregnable underneath his gloves, but passing through it naked feels like wading through a thick, viscous slime. It engulfs every crevice of Felix’s body and he realizes he cannot breathe. He can only push forward. His hairclip catches when the back of his head breaks through and he kicks himself for not thinking of it. It drags through his loosened hair until he pulls free from it, the little clip dropping to the floor on the outer side of the wall. He pulls the rest of himself past the threshold. His back foot kicks out when it is free, surging forward with the momentum and sending him stumbling over himself. He catches his balance. Stands, in an entirely separate courtyard than intended.

|  **FELIX**  
…  
---|---  
  
Felix’s head spins. It feels as if it is filled with sludge, sloshing and rioting against a layer of fog that threatens to settle over it. He shakes his head. Looks down at his hands.

|  **FELIX**  
…  
---|---  
  
They are young hands. Bruised from daily training but not yet scarred from the blades his swordguard won’t catch. He stands in the body of his seventeen year old self. He stands in front of a tower.

|  **DIMITRI**  
You came.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
—!  
  
Dimitri is waiting for him. He’s dressed in the pale moonlight that beats down on both of them like the stagelights of an opera. The fog is thick, and the ground doesn’t have the sensation of ground when Felix steps forward. Every sense is lit up with the slick of unreality. And there, at the center of it all, is Dimitri. He’s dressed in his school uniform. Faintly, Felix hears the loose notes of an orchestra from a ball long-abandoned. There was a ball? He steps away from the idea in favor of meeting Dimitri in front of the fabled Goddess Tower.

|  **FELIX**  
...Dimitri.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I didn’t think you’d come.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I prepared a speech, Felix. But I didn’t practice it because I didn’t think you’d come.  
|  **FELIX**  
You invited me?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Yes. Ah. Sylvain did give you my note, did he not?  
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain...  
  
Felix clenches his eyes shut.

|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain brought me here.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Oh good, so you did get my message.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You look tense, Felix. Are you quite alright?  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m fine.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
Don’t tell me you’re nervous.  
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain brought me here. He brought me here for a reason. Why am I here?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
It’s alright to be nervous, Felix.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
Can I let you in on a secret? It took every ounce of strength I had to invite you here tonight. I wanted to so badly, but I was afraid of what you’d say.  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You do know about the legend, don’t you?  
|  **FELIX**  
...Something, something fated lovers. Sure. Can you stop talking for a second? I’m forgetting something.  
  
A hand finds Felix’s cheek. Dimitri rubs a thumb over the heating skin there. Felix’s head is tilted back and towards the object of his affections. He watches his Prince’s throat dip and swallow. Dimitri does not make any further moves, hesitance locking up his joints, but Felix feels like putty beneath his hands.

|  **DIMITRI**  
I care for you, Felix.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
We’ve been fighting so much recently and I hate it. Why would we continue to do that when we can have all this? When we can have each other?  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t like you for a reason.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
But why?  
  
Dimitri’s hands are hot on his skin.

|  **FELIX**  
Because…  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
If you don’t have a reason you don’t have to think of one on the spot.  
|  **FELIX**  
Because you’re insufferable. That’s right.  
|  **FELIX**  
You walk around with that princely veneer fooling every soul you meet and they don’t know what you are, yet. They don’t realize.  
|  **FELIX**  
They haven’t seen what depths you can sink to. Not like I have.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
We’re bigger than these tiffs, and I know you know that. You’ve decided to join me despite all these grand opinions of me. That must mean something.  
|  **FELIX**  
Why am I here? I would never agree to meet you here.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Don’t let our past get in the way of how you feel, Felix.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not this indulgent.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
Indulgent, that’s a good word for it. Isn't this lovely? Me, and you, and fate. Underneath the Goddess Tower. Isn’t this everything you’ve wanted?  
|  **FELIX**  
I would never come here with you.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Don’t you want to?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Didn’t you want it to be just like this?  
  
Something lulls Felix into a syrupy sickness at the back of his mind.

|  **FELIX**  
…  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You can have this. Let yourself have this.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You can have a prince, just for yourself.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
All yours.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You’ll kiss me, won’t you, Felix?  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
  
Dimitri tilts his face up and forward and Felix melts into a kiss he has never before tasted. It’s unfamiliar. Completely foreign. Dimitri’s lips are young and inexperienced and not the chapped, biting things that Dimitri hungered to place on him in the darkness of temporary war quarters back during—

Felix’s eyes snap open and he pushes Dimitri away on instinct. He shoves a forearm across his mouth, wiping away the affection.

|  **DIMITRI**  
...Did I do something wrong?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not in love with you.   
|  **FELIX**  
Not you. Not with you. You… I hated you. A silk cloth holding together a bundle of razors, that’s what you were. Waiting to slice through at the slightest jostle.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
What are you talking about? You love me. You told me yourself.  
|  **FELIX**  
Not you.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I’m trying my best to be the man you deserve—  
|  **FELIX**  
Stop!  
  
Felix screams it at the top of his lungs. He backs away from the great spiral tower and the moonlit Prince. He feels the dropoff on either side of him and is hit with a wave of vertigo.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Felix, you’re hurting me.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Stop saying my name.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I love you, Felix. Why did you come if you didn’t feel the same for me?  
|  **FELIX**  
You would never have confessed to me. You never had your shit together enough for something that… emotionally involved.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I love you. I can love you. Trust me.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re not Dimitri.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I am Dimitri.  
|  **FELIX**  
You're not. You’re not, you’re not.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I am. I am Dimitri. Felix—  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re not.  
  
Felix holds his ground. Reality feels uneven.

|  **FELIX**  
You're a shell.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
The shell I tried to trick myself into believing so many times—that you were healed, that you were okay.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I am okay.  
|  **FELIX**  
That’s it, isn’t it? That’s what everyone but me saw. You're fine. You’re fine! You’re polite. You’re charming.   
|  **FELIX**  
You’re just the top layer.  
|  **FELIX**  
You're not my boar prince.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re not the man I’m in love with.  
  
Dimitri stops his approach. His shoulders drop, and his mouth pulls back to form unvoiced words. The stone bridge rumbles beneath Felix’s feet but his mind is clear, now. Sharp as a polished blade.

|  **FELIX**  
Where is he?  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
…  
|  **FELIX**  
Where is he!?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
...I need you to think very hard about what you intend to accomplish, here.  
|  **FELIX**  
Get the fuck away from me.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
The rest won’t be as kind as me.  
|  **FELIX**  
What’s happened to him? What did you do to him?  
  
Dimitri frowns.

|  **DIMITRI**  
...You can stay here.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You can stay, Felix. We can be together. Nothing will hurt you or me ever again. Isn’t that what you told me you wanted? You can have everything you want. It’s simple.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
The others have accepted similar offers. Stay. Please.  
|  **FELIX**  
Where is he?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I’m right here.  
  
A rage overtakes Felix and his hands reach for his belt and it’s there—it was always there, in school, his old sword. A gift from his father on his fifteenth birthday. He pulls it from its sheath and charges.

Dimitri does not flinch when the sword stabs into him. Felix pierces it deep but does not feel the familiar squelch of blood of the sensation of bone meeting steel. The sword hangs there, embedded into Dimitri’s chest. Felix stumbles back in surprise.

Dimitri, young and well-mannered, has never looked so sad.

|  **DIMITRI**  
I see you’ve reached a conclusion.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
...I hope you do not come to regret your choice.  
  
The world shatters. The bridge underneath Felix cracks into a thousand cobblestones and the starry sky rips in two. Felix is thrown back. He falls into a void. He does not see Dimitri.

He hits the ground after what feels like an eternity. He is in a courtyard, the correct courtyard. The little one visible from inside the research tent. He is naked.

He does not see Annette. He does not see Sylvain, or Yuri, and panic sets in as he urges himself to stand and fight with a sword he no longer possesses.

|  **FELIX**  
…  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
...Dimitri.  
|  **FELIX**  
...Dimitri, I’m coming.


	3. Loyal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Me:** can we get bride class dlc  
>  **Intelligent Systems:** we have bride class dlc at home  
>  **Bride Class DLC at Home:**

Felix walks with a sense of purpose he has not felt since the war. He strides forward, naked but emboldened, through the courtyard and into the fortress proper. He shoulders open doors and enters a defensive corridor. Little windows flank his walk but there are no archers stationed at them, allied or enemy. There are no guards at all. Each stone hallway is more desolate than the last.

|  **FELIX**  
Dimitri!  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
|  **FELIX**  
...Annette?  
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain?  
  
No one answers. Felix peeks in doors for a sign of a weapon he can scavenge but he’s entered servant quarters, now, and there’s little in the way of offense. He bolsters his shield forward and continues onward.

|  **FELIX**  
—!  
---|---  
  
A thick, murky fog looms in the corridor before him. It’s a deep grey, flickering with flashes of purple magic. It surges at him, overtaking the stones as if alive. He steps back until his back hits the door he entered through. He turns to open it—finds it locked.

|  **FELIX**  
What!?  
---|---  
  
There is nowhere to go. Smoke overtakes him and he presses a hand over his nose and mouth. He expects poison. He expects a burning sensation where the smoke touches his skin. None comes. He shoulders the door over and over until his crest finally triggers and sends his body crashing with the full weight of its might against it. The wood buckles, the latch breaks, and Felix falls forward into a grassy field.

He looks up but there is no longer a door behind him. Only a grassy field, a grassy field Felix has been in before. The mountain grass is harsh and sharp against his skin but Felix recognizes it as the sweetest Faerghus spring can offer. Everything is green. The scent of pine wafts from the perimeter of the glade, spiced and familiar. And all the while Felix knows this, recognizes this, feels at peace within this.

Felix gazes up beyond the treetops and expects what he sees: the tip of a great, ancient manor built of stone and timber. It lurks above the treeline like a threat. House Fraldarius, his home.

|  **FELIX**  
...This is my territory.   
---|---  
  
An arrow hits the spring earth with a sharp thunk. Felix looks over at it, his head swimming, and sees that it has landed just a few inches shy of his sword hand. 

A spark of awareness hits him and he lurches up to his feet. He spins, reaching for his waist. His hand finds a sword—not his sword, but a familiar one. His brother’s sword is in his scabbard. He pulls it out but with a shocked, unnerved grip. Horsehooves approach but he only stares at the way the well-used but well-maintained metal glints in the setting sunlight. It feels oddly weighted in Felix’s hands. 

Distantly, he hears a bow cock back.

|  **ASHE**  
Freeze.  
---|---  
  
Felix blinks, and pops his head up to see the haloed silhouette of Ashe in the fading sun. He sits with a loaded bow atop a dappled gray horse.

|  **FELIX**  
Ashe?  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Don’t move.   
|  **FELIX**  
Don’t… shoot me.   
|  **FELIX**  
Why are you trying to shoot me?  
|  **ASHE**  
Stop talking.   
|  **FELIX**  
Ashe. I’ve been looking for you. I know we never got along, but—It’s me.  
|  **ASHE**  
Deserter.  
  
Ashe pulls his arm back and Felix steps away from him, prepared to dodge if needed. He realizes he does not have his shield, but his sword rises in defense.

|  **FELIX**  
Ashe—  
---|---  
  
A scorching pain echoes out across his shoulder.

|  **FELIX**  
Oh, fuck.   
---|---  
  
Felix struggles for breath as the point-blank assault digs into the muscles of his shoulder. His hand grips the shaft of the arrow and rips it from where it has imbedded itself into his body. He grits his teeth.

|  **FELIX**  
What the fuck?  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Don’t. Don’t look at me like that. You were going to attack.  
|  **FELIX**  
I was not.  
|  **ASHE**  
You were!  
|  **FELIX**  
I wouldn’t do that.  
  
Ashe offers him a noise of disbelief.

|  **ASHE**  
What wouldn’t you do?   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
A lot, actually.  
|  **ASHE**  
You abandoned the King! You, of all people!  
|  **FELIX**  
—The King. The King. Dimitri’s here?  
|  **ASHE**  
He sent me to recover you.  
  
Felix glances at his shoulder. A pool of blood spreads across the dark teal fabric. It throbs.

|  **FELIX**  
By any means necessary?  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
As long as you were alive. But look at you—I didn’t mean to—  
|  **FELIX**  
You shot me.  
|  **ASHE**  
I know. I know, Glenn, and I’m sorry.  
  
Felix’s veins run cold.

|  **ASHE**  
I know that if our positions were flipped you would have handled this with so much more grace and honor and respect—  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
—What did you just call me?  
|  **ASHE**  
But they’re not flipped, Glenn. You’re a deserter. It’s my job to stop you.  
|  **FELIX**  
Don’t call me by that name. What’s wrong with you?  
|  **ASHE**  
Please don’t fight me. Please. Put down your weapon.  
|  **ASHE**  
Let’s get you home.   
  
Felix bites down his anger. He breathes, hard, but sheaths his sword.

|  **FELIX**  
...Ashe. I need you to listen closely to me.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
This world is not reality. I am not your enemy. Your mind has been overtaken by something… evil, I think. It’s wearing Dimitri’s face. I need you to trust me.  
|  **ASHE**  
You will call him Your Majesty and you will climb on this horse with me and return to your duty.   
|  **FELIX**  
My duty?  
|  **ASHE**  
Our duty. As knights.  
  
Felix’s shoulder throbs.

|  **FELIX**  
Your duty is being used against you.  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
My duty is all either of us have, Glenn. You swore that oathe when you became a knight, just as I did.  
|  **FELIX**  
I am not Glenn. I’m—Fuck, this hurts. I can’t believe you shot me.   
|  **FELIX**  
You remember me, don’t you? I’m Felix. We were at war together.  
|  **ASHE**  
I refuse to call you by any name other than the one you were knighted as.   
|  **FELIX**  
This is getting nowhere.  
|  **ASHE**  
Why are you abandoning everything?  
|  **FELIX**  
Ashe, you need to listen to me.  
|  **ASHE**  
And on your wedding day!  
  
Felix’s brow furrows at that.

|  **FELIX**  
My what.  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
How could you abandon Countess Galatea?  
|  **FELIX**  
Countess—Ingrid’s here?  
|  **ASHE**  
Of course she is.  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes. Perfect. Thank Seiros. I need to speak with her.  
|  **ASHE**  
You’re lucky if the Countess will make your acquaintance after this stunt.  
|  **FELIX**  
Can you take me to her?  
|  **ASHE**  
So you do want to marry her, then? After all this?  
  
Felix pauses.

|  **FELIX**  
...You think I’m marrying Ingrid?  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
You can and you will, if you have any honor at all left in you.  
|  **FELIX**  
She’s already married.  
|  **ASHE**  
You two have been betrothed since her birth. We’re not running that late to the wedding.  
|  **FELIX**  
She’s already married to Sylvain.  
|  **ASHE**  
Margrave Gautier’s son?  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes. Sylvain. The man you spent a whole war fighting alongside, remember?  
|  **ASHE**  
I’ve…   
|  **ASHE**  
I’ve never been to war.  
|  **FELIX**  
What do you mean you’ve never been to war?  
|  **ASHE**  
—That doesn’t mean I’m not a knight!  
|  **ASHE**  
And I know enough about Gautier’s youngest that I wouldn’t wish him upon the Countess. You might be a deserter, but at least I can trust you not to round around.  
|  **ASHE**  
At least I think I can.  
|  **FELIX**  
No, they’re—They’re fine. They’re married. You were at the wedding.  
|  **ASHE**  
You’re trying to confuse me. It won’t work.  
|  **FELIX**  
You and Ingrid are _best friends—_  
|  **ASHE**  
Are you coming or will I have to subdue you on King Dimitri’s orders?  
  
Ashe presses him. Felix ignores his tone, and steps towards the horse.

|  **FELIX**  
Take me to her.   
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Really?  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes.  
|  **ASHE**  
Oh. Thank the Goddess.  
|  **ASHE**  
Thank you.  
|  **ASHE**  
And… I really am sorry about the shoulder.  
  
  
  


—

Felix rides behind Ashe back to House Fraldarius. Flowers bloom across the gardens and there is not an out of place leaf in sight. Felix sees faceless, fuzzy figures of staff scuttling across the grounds. There’s an endless stream of commotion as the two of them ride towards the guest manors. The walls of the main house are decorated with garlands and the windows are scrubbed clean. Felix has never seen a wedding hosted at his estate but he figures this is probably what one would look like.

Ashe’s horse slows to a leisurely walk in front of a particular guesthouse and Felix slides off the side before it stops in full.

|  **ASHE**  
Hey! Get back here!  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Is she in here?  
|  **ASHE**  
She’s getting ready for today! You can’t barge in on a woman’s dressing room—  
  
Felix bangs on the door.

|  **FELIX**  
Ingrid! Open up!  
---|---  
  
Felix continues to slam his fist into the door until Ashe’s hands pull hard at his injured shoulder and he’s forced to bite back a curse. He shoves at Ashe. The door opens behind him.

|  **INGRID**  
Glenn?  
---|---  
  
Felix and Ashe cool what was a split-second from becoming a fist fight. Felix turns to face Ingrid as he had seen her only once before—and even then, under far different circumstances.

|  **INGRID**  
Glenn. You’re… here.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Ingrid.   
  
Ingrid is dressed in wedding finery. Her hair is long. A silk-gloved hand juts out and slaps him across the face.

|  **FELIX**  
Dammit. That hurts.   
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Countess, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought him here.  
|  **INGRID**  
So what’s this then, Glenn? You’re breaking the arrangement? After all these years?  
|  **FELIX**  
I am not Glenn.   
  
Ingrid’s face is a look of glassy-eyed disgust.

|  **FELIX**  
...And you have no idea what I’m talking about. Never mind.  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
You’re despicable.  
|  **FELIX**  
So, what, this is your fantasy, then? You get to wear a big puffy dress and marry my brother?  
|  **INGRID**  
How could you. I thought you were—Not only better than this, but the _ideal._  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m Felix. I’m not Glenn. You know that deep down. You’re bigger than this childish indulgence.  
|  **ASHE**  
Marriage between noble houses is a sacred right—  
|  **FELIX**  
I said that she was bigger than these childish indulgences, Ashe. I know that you were bottle-fed on the stuff.  
|  **ASHE**  
I have become everything I’ve aspired to be. I thought we shared that goal.  
|  **FELIX**  
What goal? To follow orders like a loyal dog?  
  
Felix glares back at Ingrid.

|  **FELIX**  
To let our elders arrange us like breeding stock?  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
You’re an asshole.  
|  **ASHE**  
—Countess!  
|  **INGRID**  
I know what I said. Remove him from my sight, dear knight.  
  
Ashe springs into action, grabbing at Felix’s injured arm and craning it behind his back. Felix’s cheek collides with stone when Ashe shoves him forward, into the waiting wall of Ingrid’s guesthouse.

|  **FELIX**  
—Hrgh.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not going to fight you.  
|  **ASHE**  
You mind your mouth around noble ladies.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not going to fight you, ‘dear knight.’  
  
Ashe kicks at the back of his knees and Felix falls to a kneel. His face grinds down the wall on his way down.

|  **INGRID**  
Thank you, Sir Ashe.   
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
You’re welcome, Your Grace.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m going to heave my breakfast all over you two.  
|  **ASHE**  
I’ll escort him to his rooms until this evening.   
|  **ASHE**  
That is, uh, if the wedding is still on?  
|  **INGRID**  
…  
|  **INGRID**  
He’s here, isn’t he?  
|  **FELIX**  
We’re not getting married.  
|  **INGRID**  
Neither of us have a choice in that, Glenn. But I thought you of all people understood how worthy we were to accept that future.   
|  **FELIX**  
Ingrid. Listen to me. This isn’t the life you forged for yourself. This isn’t the woman you worked so hard to become.  
|  **FELIX**  
Glenn’s dead.   
|  **FELIX**  
Glenn died.   
|  **FELIX**  
I’m Felix.  
|  **INGRID**  
…  
|  **INGRID**  
...Felix?  
  
Ashe picks him off the ground but Felix fights back as he’s dragged away.

|  **FELIX**  
Yes. Yes! Felix. Felix Fraldarius, second son of Duke Fraldarius.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m Felix. We grew up together. You know me. You know this isn’t real.  
|  **INGRID**  
...  
|  **FELIX**  
Ingrid, you’re a knight. The King is in danger. You have to remember.  
|  **INGRID**  
…  
|  **INGRID**  
Has Glenn gone mad?  
|  **ASHE**  
I’m not sure, Your Grace.  
|  **INGRID**  
I… suppose it’s fine, as long as he can conceive children.  
|  **FELIX**  
This is useless. I’m groveling for nothing.  
|  **ASHE**  
If I may, Your Grace. It may just be groom jitters. They happen to the best of men.  
|  **INGRID**  
Ah. Of course.   
|  **INGRID**  
Maybe a nap is in order.   
|  **ASHE**  
An excellent idea.   
  
Felix attempts to wrench himself from Ashe’s grasp. Ingrid lifts her hand and a spell sparks at her fingertips. Felix has never seen Ingrid use magic in his life. He’s too surprised to defend himself.

The world fades around the edges as Felix takes a direct hit of magic that glistens blue-green as it seers at his consciousness. He blinks a few hazy, distant times. The world darkens.

|  **INGRID**  
Rest well, Glenn Fraldarius. May you return to yourself when you wake.  
---|---  
  
  
  


—

He wakes in his brother’s quarters. He sits up in his brother’s bed.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Good afternoon.  
---|---  
  
Dimitri stands in the dim, murky confines of Felix’s brother’s bedroom. The dark wood feels oppressive. The King is not missing an eye.

|  **FELIX**  
Dimitri.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Felix. Are you well? I heard you were injured during your return.  
|  **FELIX**  
You called me Felix.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Oh, yes. I did. I know you are awake, Felix. I know you are aware of the present situation. I will not trouble you with the title this world calls you by. Though this world does love its titles.   
|  **FELIX**  
My brother’s name is not some title to be inherited.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You’ve inherited nothing. You are Glenn Fraldarius, esteemed member of the Royal Guard and beloved betrothed. Isn’t it nice, not having to live in the great spread of his former shadow?  
|  **FELIX**  
You spit in the face of his sacrifice.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Ah, this feeling of inadequacy is something you will have to conquer if you wish to remain here. He was so young, I realize, and yet left such a legacy to be crippled beneath.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
But that’s all moot now. As intended.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not staying here.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I would recommend it, as your confidant and as your king.   
|  **FELIX**  
You are not my king. You’re a monster.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I’m not.  
|  **FELIX**  
You lie. You wear his face like a mask. I’ll rip it off by force.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I have been nothing but honest with you, and I will continue to be nothing but honest with you. I am a good man, Felix. This part of me at least.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
A bit by the book, maybe. But good.  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You know this.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’ve possessed him.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I have terrible news, Felix, but I am him in all aspects of mind. I am not some creature of dark magic that puppeteers his body. I am a splinter of a whole, yes, but I am truly King Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. Noble-blooded and pure and the rightful leader of this blessed nation.  
|  **FELIX**  
Dimitri would never do this. Not to Ingrid. Not to Ashe. Maybe to me, but that would be justified. They don’t deserve this.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You don’t think I, a king, would seek to craft a world where his cherished friends were granted the futures they so desired?  
|  **FELIX**  
This is no future they would dwell in willingly.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You don’t think so?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
A world where Ashe never faced the horrors of war, where his adopted father lived long enough to see him become a holy knight of Faerghus, where his convictions of justice and morality were never so challenged by the very nature of grayness?   
|  **DIMITRI**  
And you know first hand how drastically Ingrid changed after Glenn died. Don’t you miss that little girl, running around smitten at the heels of your elder brother? So sweet. So innocent. So full of hope for the future. I miss her, sometimes. Often.  
|  **FELIX**  
Ingrid doesn’t have to be sweet or innocent to be happy. And she certainly doesn’t have to cater to your nostalgia.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
They’ve fought, for me, enough.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
They’ve given every inch of their bodies so that atop my great throne I may find a sense of peace.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
And in return I’ve now given them a world where they no longer have to fight for their own.  
|  **FELIX**  
You are not Dimitri.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
I am. I see you doubting your own accusation.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I want this fate for you, too, Felix. Genuinely.   
|  **FELIX**  
That is no favor.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Stay. Stay and take Glenn’s place in this story. Stay and be brothers-in-arms with Ashe. Stay and fight by my side, fight to protect me, just as the Goddess willed upon your birth so shortly after my own. I know nothing makes you feel more worthwhile.  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Stay, and marry Ingrid. Have a wife, conceive a lineage. Bring about children who will bare your crest with pride, who will take their family legacy upon themselves and protect my princes and princesses with courage worthy of a Fraldarius.  
|  **FELIX**  
...  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Consider my offer. At least until you find yourself at the altar this evening. Then I am afraid you will indeed have to make a choice.  
|  **FELIX**  
I will be the last Fraldarius. I told you that when I left.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You don’t have to be.  
|  **FELIX**  
I will be, and you more than anyone know the reason.  
  
Dimitri smiles, and nods, and dips his head down towards the bed Felix has felt too pinned to lift himself from.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Sweet Felix. The threads that bind the crestborn nobles of this land are strong and vast and worth more than the hot blood that runs in our baser instincts.   
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
There is so much more to being betrothed to a woman than simple affection—or lack thereof.  
  
A temper flares in the depths of Felix’s chest. He spits:

|  **FELIX**  
Bold words from a man who once asked me to marry him on the battlefield, covered in the blood of his enemies.  
---|---  
  
Dimitri pulls back.

|  **DIMITRI**  
We all lose our dignity now and then. I’ve been more than patient with your present self, I think.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Consider my offer. You will fit in well here. I feel it in my very soul.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
This piece of it, at least.  
|  **FELIX**  
And if I refuse?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Then I’ll have Ashe dispose of you as penance for your dishonor.  
|  **FELIX**  
If you are truly Dimitri, you would never kill me.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus has no room for deserters.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
This piece of me stands uncorrupted by our mutual history. I will always be loyal to my Kingdom before you.  
  
With that, Dimitri’s large cape swooshes across the floor. Felix remains tucked in bed and watches him depart. His shoulder hurts, and he presses a hand across the puncture wound to provide a fleeting relief of pressure. 

The door opens, and closes, and several minutes tick by before Felix is certain that Dimitri is gone.

|  **FELIX**  
I need to get out of here.  
---|---  
  
The door is locked, naturally, when he attempts it. He remembers Glenn’s quarters having windows, but there are none present. He paces around the room for any catch of escape. Instead, his eye catches on the vanity.

Something is wrong with it.

It’s a great, dark-wooded desk with an inset mirror. Felix had never seen his brother spend too much time at it, as he was never one for gazing at his reflection, but Felix bares into it now. The reflective glass struggles to catch his visage, to calculate the angle of life and mirror it back. Felix sees himself distorted within the glass. It seems to... heave, under the pressure. It flickers and he’s naked, then he’s clothed, then he’s bleeding, then he’s dressed in armor heavier than he would ever willingly wear. It settles on a visage of him in a wedding suit, but he knows to the very depths of his soul that it is not real. 

The glass cracks. 

Felix examines the pieces. They cling to their frame, only one of them tumbling out to shatter on the tabletop. Each one broadcasts back a different room and a different Felix and the sight of it is strangely nauseating, a barrage of himselfs picking at his skin. Then, in a tiny sliver of silver in the bottom right corner, he sees Annette.

|  **ANNETTE**  
...!  
---|---  
  
She’s waving, yelling something, but he cannot hear her. He cannot do anything but angle his head exactly right and squint and stare out at her in the little piece of mirror. He lifts his hand and gives a slight wave back.

|  **FELIX**  
Annette. You’re okay. Where are you?  
---|---  
|  **ANNETTE**  
...  
  
She shakes her head and gestures at her ear. Felix nods at her in understanding. He points to himself.

|  **FELIX**  
I’ll...  
---|---  
  
He points to her.

|  **FELIX**  
Find you. I promise.  
---|---  
  
Annette thinks about this for a second before she nods enthusiastically.

|  **ANNETTE**  
...  
---|---  
  
She points to herself.

|  **ANNETTE**  
…  
---|---  
  
She points to Felix, and smiles, and nods. Felix smiles back. And then the door to his room flies open and guards scatter in. He’s forced to whip his head away from Annette.

|  **ASHE**  
Watch him. He’s fast.  
---|---  
  
Ashe holds a drawn bow and is commanding a battalion of armored units with metal-covered faces.

|  **FELIX**  
What’s this about?  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
I’m escorting you to your wedding.  
  
Felix rips his attention away to look back at Annette. He struggles to refind the angle where he can see her. He know she can’t hear him, but still he yells out:

|  **FELIX**  
Stay safe.  
---|---  
  
He’s grabbed and dragged back and as he loses his view of Annette he sees her yelling in distress inside the tiny sliver of mirror. He fights just long enough for her to give him a final, harrowing look before he’s torn from her. He’s shoved out his door and into the familiar upstairs hall of manor Fraldarius. Ashe steps out beside him and lowers his bowpoint to his throat.

|  **ASHE**  
One wrong move and I have orders to kill you.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
You’d kill an old friend like Glenn Fraldarius?  
|  **ASHE**  
If that friend was a potential threat to the King.   
|  **FELIX**  
Think hard about what exactly you’d do for your king. What are your limits?  
|  **ASHE**  
Glenn, don’t make me do this. You have the power to not make me do this. Stand down.  
  
Felix stares down the boltshaft.

|  **FELIX**  
...  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
...I’m about to do something terrible to you, Ashe.   
|  **FELIX**  
I know you and I were never close, but I do know what pain you went through. And I wouldn’t wish to make anyone remember even a fraction of it.  
|  **ASHE**  
You will do nothing but walk to the fate Seiros intends for you.  
  
Ashe steps behind Felix and sets the arrowtip towards his back. Felix huffs in frustration, and begins to walk forward at Ashe’s command.

|  **FELIX**  
Do you remember when we were in school together and we watched Thunder Catherine strike down Lord Lonato for rebelling against the church?  
---|---  
  
They make a left. Ashe answers after a long pause, and though Felix cannot see his face he can hear his exasperation:

|  **ASHE**  
Lonato lives.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Then you remember about that day? Do you remember being ordered to attack him?  
|  **ASHE**  
We never went to school together. You’re older than me.  
|  **FELIX**  
Do I look much older than you?  
|  **ASHE**  
Keep walking.  
|  **FELIX**  
Think hard, Ashe. We fought a war together. A continent-consuming war.   
|  **ASHE**  
—The whole continent?  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes.  
|  **ASHE**  
There has not been a war that big since Faerghus gained its independence.  
|  **FELIX**  
There was, and you fought in it. You had a miserable time.  
|  **FELIX**  
These things you stand for are good in theory but you know better than anyone, maybe even better than me, how empty they make you feel when they’re challenged by anything more brutal than a jousting tournament.  
|  **FELIX**  
Lonato died. My brother died.  
|  **FELIX**  
And they had their reasons but those reasons are never going to be enough, are they? Not when you’re the one that’s left behind.  
|  **ASHE**  
Stop talking.  
|  **FELIX**  
Ashe, Dimitri is going to ask you to kill me—  
|  **ASHE**  
We’re here.  
  
Ashe stops them in front of the doors to the Fraldarius cathedral. Each one is a great, dark thing etched with stories of chivalry and origin and faith.

|  **FELIX**  
When that time comes... I just need you to think twice.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
That’s all, okay?  
|  **FELIX**  
That’s all it takes.  
|  **ASHE**  
Open the door.  
  
Felix’s hands find the large metal doorhandles and push them open. The cathedral is humble by Faerghus’ grand ancient church standards but still as mesmerizing as it was in his youth. Light filters seemingly without the boundaries of rays. It sparkles through colored glass in the visage of armored saints. Dragons flank the tableau of figures in war regalia, wielding holy weapons in the name of the Goddess. Rows of pews are filled with faceless figures in their grandest finery. Every bench faces the altar. At the altar stands a pensive Ingrid.

Behind her, Dimitri.

|  **DIMITRI**  
So nice of you to join us, Glenn.   
---|---  
  
Felix does not give him an answer. Ashe marches him to his place at Ingrid’s left. Ashe steps back, but the sight of his bow does not leave Felix’s throat.

|  **FELIX**  
Last chance to get it together, Ingrid.   
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
Hmph.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
We will start this ceremony by humbling ourselves before the Goddess, thanking her for granting us a safe land where love and lineage can blossom. Lovebirds, if you will.  
  
Ingrid kneels. Felix looks to Dimitri, who glares with both eyes. Felix kneels. The hard stone of the cathedral floor finds his knees and he is opposite Ingrid, on the ground, Dimitri towering above them. He lowers his voice to a whisper.

|  **FELIX**  
Glenn’s dead.  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
I don’t trust men who speak in metaphors on their wedding day.  
|  **FELIX**  
Then don’t marry me.  
|  **INGRID**  
That’s not an option.  
|  **FELIX**  
You can do whatever you want.  
|  **INGRID**  
I have lands to look after. My House is lucky our engagement was forged before the failed harvests began.   
|  **INGRID**  
If something were to happen to you, to this marriage… I don’t know what would become of me.   
|  **FELIX**  
I think you would find your own path. You’re that kind of person, Ingrid.  
|  **FELIX**  
We’re those kind of people.   
|  **INGRID**  
This doesn’t sound like a wedding prayer, Glenn.  
|  **FELIX**  
Felix.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Rise.   
  
Felix stands with Ingrid. They’re still facing one another, Ingrid’s brow heavy with contempt.

|  **DIMITRI**  
You may begin your vows.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’ll go first.  
|  **INGRID**  
That is the custom, yes.  
|  **FELIX**  
Surely.  
|  **FELIX**  
Hey, Ingrid. Remember that time back in school where you stole a whole bunch of cured meat from the pantry? And you blamed it on the monastery dogs, but really you kept it in your quarters?   
|  **INGRID**  
What?  
|  **FELIX**  
And everyone knew that if they wanted on-demand cured meat they had to go to Ingrid’s room and cough up a decent coin.  
|  **INGRID**  
That’s—That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.  
|  **FELIX**  
What’d it feel like? Do you remember?  
|  **INGRID**  
Are these your vows?  
|  **FELIX**  
To take what you want. To be selfish, at the expense of others.  
|  **INGRID**  
If these are your vows this marriage is more doomed than I expected.  
|  **FELIX**  
Do you remember that night you snuck away early from our assigned patrols, just to sleep with Ashe?  
|  **INGRID**  
—!  
|  **ASHE**  
Hey! That never—You can’t just say things like that!  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Ashe, keep your arrow on Glenn.  
|  **INGRID**  
I won’t stand for rumors of such impiety.   
|  **FELIX**  
Did it feel good? To spend the whole night with someone who wasn’t mailed to you in a letter from your father?  
|  **FELIX**  
You bragged to me about it the next day, Ingrid. You were so pleased with yourself. So—  
  
A heavy hand falls on Felix’s shoulder. Dimitri stares down at him.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Do you wish to say something against this union?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
No. You heard the Countess. These are my vows.  
  
Felix lifts Ingrid’s hands in his, pulling her closer.

|  **FELIX**  
You know me, Ingrid, and you know I’m not Glenn.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m Felix. We grew up together.  
|  **INGRID**  
…  
|  **FELIX**  
And you’re Ingrid, Knight of Faerghus.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re Ingrid. You fought with me during the war. You’re loyal to a fault but not afraid to call people out. You love horses more than most people. You chose to marry Sylvain, of all people.  
  
Ingrid lets out a loud scoff.

|  **INGRID**  
Sylvain, of House Gautier?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes.  
|  **INGRID**  
I would never marry Sylvain Gautier.  
|  **INGRID**  
He would never—  
|  **FELIX**  
He would. You would.   
|  **FELIX**  
Don’t you remember? You married Sylvain, not because your father arranged it but because you loved him for something more than his crest and he loved you for something more than yours.   
|  **FELIX**  
You have to remember.   
|  **INGRID**  
...   
|  **INGRID**  
...I married Sylvain.   
|  **FELIX**  
You did.   
|  **INGRID**  
I married Sylvain. That’s right.   
|  **INGRID**  
Why the hell did I marry Sylvain?   
|  **FELIX**  
I asked myself that question several times. But you were so happy.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
That’s enough. Countess Galatea, your vows, please.   
  
Ingrid’s hands slip from Felix’s. She presses them to her stomach.

|  **INGRID**  
…  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
...I’m pregnant.  
|  **FELIX**  
You are.  
|  **INGRID**  
...  
|  **INGRID**  
...I’ve had sex with Sylvain Gautier.  
|  **FELIX**  
Uh. Yes.  
|  **INGRID**  
I think I’m in love with him?  
|  **FELIX**  
You don’t have to look so scandalized. You’re the one that proposed.  
|  **INGRID**  
I did, didn’t I?  
|  **FELIX**  
You did.   
|  **INGRID**  
He said yes. He didn’t even let me finish.  
|  **FELIX**  
He really didn’t.  
|  **INGRID**  
Because he’s in love with me.   
|  **FELIX**  
He is.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
—Ingrid.  
  
But Ingrid’s eyes blink, clear and sharp, and Felix feels a cry of victory in his chest.

|  **INGRID**  
What’s happened to me?  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Countess Galatea, you will do as I instruct or face the direct consequences.  
|  **FELIX**  
This feels like a good time to mention that he’s the bad guy.  
|  **INGRID**  
Dimitri…  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Countess.  
|  **INGRID**  
You can’t do anything to me.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I can.   
|  **INGRID**  
You’re not my King. You’re standing right here in front of me but you won’t get your hands dirty. You have knights for that.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Don’t test my faith in you.  
|  **INGRID**  
You won’t hurt me.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
...  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You’re right. I won’t.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Ashe, turn your arrow towards the Countess.  
|  **ASHE**  
...What?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Now.  
  
Felix instinctually steps in front of Ingrid but it’s not enough. He doesn’t have his shield and he has always been too slight to be a worthy protector and it is not enough.

|  **FELIX**  
Ashe, she’s pregnant.   
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Step aside.  
|  **FELIX**  
She’s your best friend.  
|  **ASHE**  
Step aside!  
|  **FELIX**  
_Ashe._  
  
Ashe’s hands shake as he draws back his bow to its full tension.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Fire.  
---|---  
  
Ashe stalls. 

Felix hesitates, then lifts a careful step towards him.

|  **FELIX**  
Ashe—  
---|---  
  
A sharp, deep pain imbeds itself into the meat of Felix’s thigh. He doubles over from the shock.

|  **FELIX**  
Fuck!   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
You shot me again!  
|  **ASHE**  
Traitor. This is your fault.  
|  **ASHE**  
This is all your fault! It didn’t have to be like this!  
  
Ashe pulls another arrow out of his quiver and loads it.

|  **INGRID**  
Ashe.  
---|---  
  
Ingrid steps forward and around where Felix attempts to right himself. She moves slowly, cautiously, the hem of her long dress dragging across the floor and away from the altar.

|  **ASHE**  
Don’t make me do this, Your Grace.  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
She’s seducing you for her own agenda, Ashe. This is a plot against the One True King.   
|  **ASHE**  
Please… Don’t…  
  
Ingrid lifts out a hand.

|  **INGRID**  
Give me the bow, Ashe.  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
No.  
|  **INGRID**  
You don’t have to hurt anyone.  
|  **ASHE**  
Ingrid. Please.  
  
Felix attempts to shuffle forward with an arrow in his leg, but there is nothing more he can do. Ingrid stands in the dead center of Ashe’s aim, pressing even closer.

|  **ASHE**  
Are you…  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Are you really pregnant?  
|  **INGRID**  
I was going to tell you.   
|  **INGRID**  
It seems silly, now, but I felt bad knowing you were going to be left with more work when I took a leave of absence.   
|  **INGRID**  
I felt guilty, even. So I figured I wouldn’t say anything until it was obvious.  
|  **ASHE**  
You…  
|  **ASHE**  
You’re a knight. We’re both knights.   
|  **INGRID**  
Give me the bow. Please.   
  
Felix almost collapses with relief when Ashe loosens the tension on his bow string. He looks terrified, but Ashe hands over the crescent of silver to Ingrid.

|  **INGRID**  
Thank you.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Traitors, all of you.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I give you everything you desire and in turn you spit upon my family crest.   
|  **INGRID**  
Felix!  
  
Ingrid tosses Felix the bow and the path forward becomes clear. He catches it in his left hand. With his right, he rips the bolt from his thigh.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Felix.  
---|---  
  
Felix cocks the bloodied arrow in his newfound bow and aims it at the King. Ingrid holds Ashe back.

|  **ASHE**  
No! Your Majesty!  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
It’s not Dimitri. Something’s wrong. This is all wrong.   
|  **INGRID**  
That’s not Dimitri.  
|  **FELIX**  
Not all of him.  
  
Felix closes one eye and focuses. It has been a while since he has shot a bow but not so long that the weapon feels foreign beneath his fingertips.

|  **DIMITRI**  
I will not beg for my life from you.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I will not beg you to stay in a world you seem so hellbent on dismantling.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
You are nothing but a turncoat to me, a wolf among—  
  
Felix releases the arrow. It flies faster than he can follow, and hits the center of the King’s eye.

Dimitri’s head is knocked back with the impact. He crumples to the ground. 

The cathedral shakes. Glass shatters from its panes and dark wood groans. Felix has only enough time to spin around and call out before everything goes dark.

|  **FELIX**  
Ashe! It’s coming down! Break Ingrid’s fall!  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Fall?  
  
The floor gives out from under them. Felix freefalls towards an empty black void. He hits the hard stone of Arianrhod at an awkward angle, his shield pinned beneath him.

He’s up in an instant. He searches for the other two and spots them, nearby. Ingrid lies on her back, spread over Ashe. His arms encircle her.

|  **FELIX**  
Ingrid. You good?  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
Yes. I think so. Ashe?  
|  **ASHE**  
I’m okay.   
  
Ingrid rolls off of Ashe but does not stand. They both are dressed in their armor again, but they look exhausted. They keep their eyes closed. Their breaths are slow but even.

Ingrid is the first to come back to her full self. She glances up, her face falling to shock.

|  **INGRID**  
Felix!  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Hello.  
|  **INGRID**  
You’re still bleeding!  
|  **FELIX**  
I noticed.   
  
It’s true. Puncture wounds line his shoulder and thigh. It is a dull pain he has experienced before, but the deep stabs echo a throb every time his heart beats.

|  **INGRID**  
I’m so sorry. We didn’t—  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
It was strange magic. I’m fine.  
|  **ASHE**  
You’re… naked.  
|  **FELIX**  
Also true. Are you two sure you’re unharmed?  
|  **INGRID**  
You’re hurt.   
|  **ASHE**  
What’s going on? How did we end up… wherever that was?  
|  **FELIX**  
I was hoping you two could explain that. What happened when things went dark a week ago?  
|  **ASHE**  
A week!?  
|  **INGRID**  
Slow down. We need to treat your injuries.   
|  **FELIX**  
I said I’m fine.  
|  **INGRID**  
Felix. We’re not doing this. Not right now.  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
|  **INGRID**  
Please.  
|  **FELIX**  
Ribbon.  
|  **INGRID**  
What?  
|  **FELIX**  
You want to help? Give me one of your hair ribbons.  
|  **INGRID**  
...Alright, then.  
  
Ingrid pulls one of the short braids out of her hair and hands Felix the small ribbon and barrett. He takes it, gruff, and pulls his hair back and off his shoulders. He ties it back with practiced precision. When his arms fall back down, it is with a slight sigh of reprieve.

|  **FELIX**  
Okay. I’m okay.  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
You’ve been shot.  
|  **ASHE**  
Twice.  
|  **FELIX**  
Doesn’t matter.   
|  **INGRID**  
I think it matters very much. Sit down.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’ll rest when the King’s safe.  
|  **INGRID**  
Felix.  
  
Ingrid is slow to rise but she does stand. Ashe rushes up to assist her, or offer his best attempt. He ends up hovering a few inches to her left until she rights herself.

|  **INGRID**  
…  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
Did you come here? For Dimitri?  
|  **INGRID**  
It’s really been a week?  
  
Felix realizes how long it has been since he has seen Ingrid, their reunion lost in the chaos of the situation.

|  **FELIX**  
I was hired to help.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
As a mercenary.  
|  **INGRID**  
...You came back for him.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m working at a reduced rate. For him.   
  
They hold one another’s stare. Ashe looks between the two of them, mildly confused.

|  **INGRID**  
Are you alright?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Talking time is over.   
|  **FELIX**  
We need to move.  
  
**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bride!Ingrid's sprite was supposed to be a lot more cursed but I'm gay.


	4. Wanted

Time ticks by with each painful throb in Felix’s shoulder. Ingrid and Ashe have caught their breath now. They are stood upright and most importantly, alive.

|  **FELIX**  
You two need to get out of here.  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
You said Dimitri’s still within Arianrhod?  
|  **FELIX**  
He’s—That doesn’t matter. I can handle it.  
|  **INGRID**  
You’ve been shot.  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes, you keep bringing that up.  
|  **ASHE**  
Goddess forgive me.   
|  **INGRID**  
We need to recuperate, assess our situation, and develop a plan of recovery.   
|  **FELIX**  
We are doing nothing. You need to get out of here.  
|  **INGRID**  
I have no memory of what happened to us but I am still His Majesty’s knight.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re also pregnant. And weaponless.  
|  **INGRID**  
He is in danger.  
|  **FELIX**  
I came here for you as much as I came for him. Ashe, I need you to make sure Ingrid makes it out safe. Ingrid, same for Ashe. We made an entrance in the north courtyard.   
|  **ASHE**  
Right.  
|  **INGRID**  
I do not need to be escorted to safety like some… civilian.   
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain would never forgive me if I let you press onwards.  
|  **INGRID**  
I am more than capable of assisting in the recovery of my liege.  
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain brought me here for you, he went inside this deathtrap for _you_ , I am not going to let you put your life on the line for that deathseeking boar, of all people.  
|  **INGRID**  
—Sylvain’s here!?  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes. Annette and some former House Rowe adoptee, too. We got seperated.  
|  **INGRID**  
Sylvain’s here. Ashe, we have to—  
|  **FELIX**  
I will find him.  
|  **FELIX**  
You two have done enough. Please, for once, think about yourselves.   
  
A gentle hand comes up to rest on Ingrid’s arm. Ashe looks meek, has looked meek, since they fell out of their strange dreamscape prison.

|  **ASHE**  
Ingrid…  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
No.  
|  **ASHE**  
Maybe Felix is right.  
|  **INGRID**  
He’s not.  
|  **ASHE**  
Ingrid.   
|  **INGRID**  
I knew this would happen. I knew I would be coddled. Why do you think I didn’t tell anyone?  
|  **ASHE**  
That’s not what this is.  
|  **INGRID**  
I can rescue him.  
|  **ASHE**  
They’ve already sent people to rescue him.  
|  **INGRID**  
They have sent people to do our jobs—the jobs we should have been doing instead of playing princess and knight in a fantasy land.  
|  **ASHE**  
Of course they sent people. They knew something had happened to us.   
|  **ASHE**  
Something did happen to us, Ingrid.   
|  **INGRID**  
We got distracted.  
|  **ASHE**  
We were being held as captives. Removing ourselves from the situation is procedure.  
|  **INGRID**  
…  
|  **ASHE**  
This is the right thing to do.  
  
Ingrid jerks her arm away from Ashe’s hand. She steps to Felix, her eyes fierce and her face falling too close to his own.

|  **FELIX**  
Yes?  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
If Dimitri dies, you had better die alongside him.  
|  **FELIX**  
I can’t promise that.   
|  **INGRID**  
If he dies and I wasn’t—  
|  **FELIX**  
He won’t die. I won’t let that happen.  
|  **FELIX**  
I promise.  
|  **INGRID**  
Promise?  
|  **FELIX**  
Promise. Please get the fuck out of here.  
  
Ingrid stays still for a long while. She lowers her voice, soft and unusual and barely over a whisper.

|  **INGRID**  
Will you bring Sylvain back to me as well, then? If you’re so confident.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes.   
  
She turns to Ashe.

|  **INGRID**  
Let’s go.   
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Really?  
|  **FELIX**  
It’s past the servant’s quarters. There’s an archer’s hallway that will spit you directly into the courtyard.  
|  **FELIX**  
Watch out for smoke.  
|  **ASHE**  
Thank you. For saving us.  
|  **FELIX**  
I was saving my own skin too.  
|  **INGRID**  
We were in the council room, last I remember. It’s in the northwest corner of the top floor.  
|  **ASHE**  
Same for me.  
|  **FELIX**  
Noted.   
|  **INGRID**  
…  
|  **ASHE**  
Ingrid? You okay?  
|  **INGRID**  
...Yes.  
|  **ASHE**  
That’s good. Then we should get moving.   
|  **FELIX**  
Stay sane.  
|  **ASHE**  
Same to you.  
  
Ingrid is reluctant. Felix watches her body move against her instincts, fighting and bitter, as she turns towards the exit. Ashe starts to move down the corridor but she stalls.

|  **INGRID**  
He missed you, Felix.  
---|---  
  
She looks over her shoulder.

|  **INGRID**  
If you need some encouragement.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t.  
  
She smiles.

|  **INGRID**  
I figured.   
---|---  
  
Felix watches them depart. 

Upwards is all he has to go on as he navigates through the fortress. Stairs are prioritized, little time is wasted on locked doors. It’s a winding, blind path but Felix presses onwards: upwards. He climbs and keeps an eye out for any sign of life. There is none. 

There is, eventually, fog. He opens some doors to see faint wisps around far corners. He shuts them immediately. He has no precious time to waste and the thought of getting caught in another… nightmare, is counterintuitive to his overall goal. And yet, at each missed patch of fog he wonders if it might contain Annette, or Sylvain, or Dedue or Mercedes or even the real Dimitri. Even Yuri. Were any of them as he was? Awake and labelled a threat? In danger?

Dimitri is the priority. He doubts his captors would let the King of Faerghus loose in a wandering cloud bank, so he shuts down his thoughts and avoids the fog. He heads upwards.

And then, he hits a dead end.

A stone wall sits in front of him. A small study to his right, and a window looking out over the fortress to his left. Nowhere to go but back. When he turns he knows not to act surprised. Smoky, purple-pulsing fog rushes towards him.

|  **FELIX**  
Damn.  
---|---  
  
It overtakes him. It knocks him down and he falls into something soft. His head hits a pillow, his mind glosses over to something warm and glowing softly and he realizes he has clothes on again but not many. A heavy arm curls around his waist.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Mm.  
---|---  
  
Dimitri is curled around Felix. Felix realizes he is in Dimitri’s quarters at the monastery. He searches for context. There is a war? A war. A long, terrible war only freshly graced with Dimitri’s return. Dimitri weighs down on top of him and presses his forehead against Felix’s. 

Everything is hazy.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Fe.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
|  **DIMITRI**  
The voices have quieted.   
|  **FELIX**  
Have they now? Convenient.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Quite.  
|  **FELIX**  
I suppose you’ll want me more often, then.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Do not be so prickly. Not when I want to press against you, so.   
|  **FELIX**  
Again?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Again.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re insatiable.  
  
Dimitri kisses him, slow. It feels like kissing a wall with the slightest spark of life beyond. Felix wants to crush each brick to dust between his palms.

|  **DIMITRI**  
I have not felt anything in so long.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Do you even realize? What you mean to me?  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t think this was what my father had in mind when he thought of Fraldarius duty, if that’s what you’re asking.  
  
Dimitri’s posture stiffens at mention of Felix’s father. They have not spoken about it, not extensively, but Felix knows it hangs over both of them like a knife. There is no room for talking at the King’s bedside. Discussion is for war tables.

|  **DIMITRI**  
I do not wish to think of such things any longer.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Whores talk less than me, you know.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
I do not wish to think ever again.   
|  **FELIX**  
They’re better in bed, too.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
I do not wish to do anything but lie beside you. I do not think you know how much I desire you. How much you keep me from veering off onto an undue course.  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You’ll stay with me, won’t you, Fe?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Sweet, beloved, Felix?  
  
Dimitri’s voice is raw, hoarse, and he closes his mouth to bury it in the crook of Felix’s shoulder. The arm around him tightens. Felix is pulled flush to the full length of the King’s body. Felix offers a small smile outside of the view of His Highness. He relaxes.

|  **FELIX**  
I have not left your side yet, have I?  
---|---  
  
They fall asleep like that, warm and entangled. Dimitri is so tired. He grows heavier as he gives himself to the stiffness of sleep. Felix, as always, follows his lead.

When Felix awakes it is an indeterminate amount of hours later, but the moon shines through the curtains at the same angle. The fire burns at the same brightness in the hearth. He blinks, a few times, the crust of sleep falling off of him. His blurred thoughts are replaced with sharper things. Like war. A different war. Some far-off insurgence into Rowe territory, alone. He thinks of what a ridiculous concept the sleepdrunk thought is—wading into an impregnable fortress as a lone wolf. It sounds like a good way to get himself killed, and for what?

Dimitri, he thinks. He blinks. Dimitri is in danger.

Dimitri, a Dimitri, rests atop him. He looks no less at ease in his sleep. Felix stares at him. Then, ever so quiet, he begins to drag himself from beneath the King.

The arm over him tightens. Dimitri murmurs something illegible.

Felix feels an instinct to leave, to escape. This is a Dimitri that is lost and bloodthirsty and searching for something to numb and Felix has no time. He has no time to help, to extend a hand.

|  **FELIX**  
I’m sorry.   
---|---  
  
He rips himself from Dimitri’s grasp and tumbles off the bed. He stands, prepared for a fight, but is met with a single soft, sad eye opening from a realm of temporary death. Dimitri wakes up slowly. He curls his hand back underneath his body. He does not lift himself up or chase after Felix’s retreating form. Instead, his face contorts in disappointment beneath his sheltering covers.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Please.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
No.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
Do not leave me here, all alone.  
|  **FELIX**  
I have to.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Please do not abandon me.   
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not—I will lie with you again.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I am not looking for sex.  
  
Felix scrunches his face shut, his hands pressing to his temples.

|  **FELIX**  
This isn’t reality.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
It was, once. I thought it would last forever.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
There were moments I wanted it to last forever. Thoughtless and heated beside you. Don’t you miss it as well?  
|  **FELIX**  
Miss a war? Never. Where are my clothes?   
|  **DIMITRI**  
…  
|  **DIMITRI**  
...On the chair, before the hearth.   
  
Dimitri’s instructions are clear and Felix finds the rest of his armor folded neatly atop a large, velvet armchair. He dresses in silence. Restraps his shield to his arm. Dimitri watches.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Marry me.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’ve told you no. Several times.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
...Please.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’ll come back.   
|  **FELIX**  
I always come back.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You don’t have to leave.  
  
Felix buckles his sword to his belt.

|  **FELIX**  
You’re going to get through this.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I can’t help you get through this right now, but you will.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Don’t leave me.  
|  **FELIX**  
I promise.  
  
Felix strides past the door to Dimitri’s room and shuts it behind him. There is a slice of fear ringing in the strange, unfamiliar corridor beyond. The door is heavy at his back. The path before him, foreign. He is no longer at the monastery. He does not hear Dimitri call for him from inside the room that was. Moments tick by, and only after a quiet ache has settled into his chest does he think:

|  **FELIX**  
...Was I supposed to kill him?  
---|---  
|  **???**  
That’s bad business.   
  
Felix jumps in surprise. There is a child in front of him. A small child, with short, unusually lavender hair and intelligent eyes.

|  **FELIX**  
What?  
---|---  
|  **???**  
It’s not good business to kill clients.  
|  **FELIX**  
Clients.   
|  **???**  
You know.  
  
The child gestures vaguely to the hall.

|  **???**  
Clients. Don’t kill them. Even if they’re an asshole.   
---|---  
|  **???**  
Don’t tell my mom I said asshole.   
|  **FELIX**  
Who are you.  
|  **???**  
I’m not supposed to tell strangers my name, friend. Even if you work here.  
|  **???**  
Mom says if word gets out then the powerful men will come looking for me.  
|  **FELIX**  
Are you trapped in here? Are you one of the servant’s children?  
|  **???**  
Hmmmm.  
|  **???**  
Mom uses a fake name all the time.  
|  **???**  
How about you call me Yuri? I always thought Yuri would be a pretty name.  
|  **YURI**  
Yeah, Yuri. Nice to meet you.  
  
Yuri nods at him and continues to talk in a voice older than his appearance suggests and realization clicks audibly within Felix’s head.

|  **FELIX**  
Yuri.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Yes.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re… a child.  
|  **YURI**  
My mom says I’m bright for my age.   
  
Yuri gives a beaming smile of pride.

|  **FELIX**  
This is your home?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Not for much longer.   
|  **YURI**  
Mom says we’re going to have to move sooner than she thought. She wasn’t expecting me to be ‘aware’ so soon. Whatever that means.  
|  **YURI**  
She says it’s a good thing, though.  
|  **YURI**  
She says I’m really good at a lot of things.   
|  **FELIX**  
Where am I?  
|  **YURI**  
You don’t know where you are?  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t think I’m inside my own memories anymore, no.  
|  **YURI**  
Well, you’re pretty far west. Near Gaspard, close to the border. I’ve never been past it though.  
|  **FELIX**  
Gaspard.  
|  **YURI**  
Yep.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re from Gaspard?  
|  **YURI**  
Where else would I be from?  
|  **FELIX**  
Where in Gaspard? What is this place?  
  
Yuri lowers his voice.

|  **YURI**  
Most people here call it a ‘whorehouse.’ But _shhh,_ mom says I’m not supposed to say that.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
You grew up in a brothel?  
|  **YURI**  
Yeah. That’s more polite.   
|  **YURI**  
Can I admit something to you, friend? I just wanted to say whorehouse since she’s not around right now.  
|  **YURI**  
Whorehouse. Whorehouse, whorehouse, whorehouse.   
|  **FELIX**  
…  
|  **YURI**  
Anyway, shouldn’t you know this? Being you and all?  
|  **FELIX**  
I would never go to a—What are you implying?  
|  **YURI**  
You work here, don’t you?   
|  **YURI**  
You came here with the redhead.  
  
Felix falls still.

|  **FELIX**  
Annette?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Who?   
|  **FELIX**  
Was she a woman? Short, magically inclined?  
|  **YURI**  
No, he’s a guy.  
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain? Sylvain’s here?  
|  **YURI**  
Sylvain. Right.   
|  **YURI**  
He’s an idiot?  
|  **FELIX**  
That’s him.   
|  **YURI**  
Yeah, I know him.  
|  **FELIX**  
Can you take me to him?   
|  **YURI**  
Hmmm.  
|  **FELIX**  
What do you mean, ‘hm.’  
|  **YURI**  
What’s in it for me?  
|  **FELIX**  
Nothing.  
|  **YURI**  
What? You broke?  
|  **FELIX**  
No.  
|  **YURI**  
Well everyone’s time is money around here. What’ve you got?  
|  **FELIX**  
I am not going to be shaken down by a seven year old.  
|  **YURI**  
Nothing comes for free. That’s what my mom says.  
|  **FELIX**  
You can take home the satisfaction of a job well done.  
|  **YURI**  
Pfft.  
  
Yuri laughs at him.

|  **FELIX**  
I don’t have time for this. You’re a grown man.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
I wish. I can’t wait to be an adult.   
|  **FELIX**  
Yuri. I’m Felix, do you remember? Felix Fraldarius. We’re trapped in Arianrhod. You’re looking for your siblings.  
|  **YURI**  
Yeah, friend. And I’m the Prince of Faerghus.   
|  **FELIX**  
No. I’m actually Felix Fraldarius.  
|  **YURI**  
Which is why you’re working here.  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not.  
  
Yuri continues to snicker.

|  **FELIX**  
I don’t.   
---|---  
  
Yuri freezes. Sudden. His eyes widen and his body goes rigid. His head looks over both shoulders.

|  **FELIX**  
What are you—  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Shhh.  
  
Felix strains his ears. The corridor is long and fringed on either side with simple doors. If he quiets his breath he can hear soft, distant thumping and the occasional moan. It’s not enough to bring a scandalized blush to his face but it does make him shift in discomfort. He looks to Yuri, too young to be anywhere near such a venue.

|  **FELIX**  
I don’t hear anything.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
I said to be quiet.  
|  **FELIX**  
What’s wrong?  
|  **YURI**  
If I promise to take you to see Sylvain will you shut the—will you shut up?  
  
Felix bites down his reply and nods for these terms. He does not move. He listens. In the distance, now, he hears a soft clunk of heavy armor walking. Yuri startles. The next thing Felix knows Yuri is holding his hand. Yuri is scared, tucked beneath his arm and against his leg.

|  **FELIX**  
What. What is this.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
You have to help me.  
|  **FELIX**  
What’s happening.  
|  **YURI**  
I know you just arrived but Mom said I could trust anyone who works here.  
|  **FELIX**  
What’s wrong?  
|  **YURI**  
The powerful men.  
|  **FELIX**  
Who?  
|  **YURI**  
They want my—  
|  **YURI**  
I have a—  
|  **YURI**  
—I can’t tell you! But still!  
|  **FELIX**  
You have a crest.  
|  **YURI**  
...  
|  **FELIX**  
Someone wants you for your crest.   
|  **YURI**  
My mom says people always want something from someone. It can’t be helped.  
|  **FELIX**  
Get behind me.   
  
Felix unsheaths his sword and Yuri’s eyes light up.

|  **YURI**  
That looks expensive.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
It was. Let’s find Sylvain. He’ll work with us.  
|  **YURI**  
You’ll help me? Really?  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not going to leave you. You’re just a kid. You can’t defend yourself in here.  
|  **YURI**  
I can run.  
|  **YURI**  
I’m really good at running.   
|  **FELIX**  
That’s right. Your crest makes you fast, doesn’t it?  
|  **YURI**  
How’d you know that?  
|  **FELIX**  
Your memories are going to hit you. Eventually. Where’s Sylvain?  
  
Yuri looks down both sides of the hall to be sure it’s clear. He steps away from Felix but continues to hold his hand.

|  **YURI**  
This way.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Stay close.   
  
They jog down the hall. Yuri keeps excellent pace despite his shorter legs but when they round a corner they’re met with another endless corridor of doors. Yuri falters.

|  **YURI**  
Um.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
What?  
  
There is a clunking behind them. Yuri panics.

|  **YURI**  
This way!  
---|---  
  
He charges forward and Felix follows, their hands still gripped. Another corner. Another corridor.

|  **YURI**  
—!  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Yuri, it’s okay.   
|  **YURI**  
This isn’t…  
|  **FELIX**  
It’s not making sense, is it?  
|  **YURI**  
It isn’t laid out like this. What’s happening?  
|  **FELIX**  
We have to get out of here.  
|  **FELIX**  
Look at me. I am Felix Fraldarius. You have to remember me.   
|  **YURI**  
This is no time for games!  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m telling the truth, Yuri.  
|  **YURI**  
My name’s not even Yuri!  
  
Someone steps behind them. Felix whips around, shoving Yuri back and lifting his sword in defense.

|  **FELIX**  
…  
---|---  
|  **GWENDAL**  
Hand over the boy, Fraldarius.  
|  **FELIX**  
You.  
|  **FELIX**  
I remember you. You’re a knight for House Rowe. Gwendal? Am I close?  
|  **GWENDAL**  
I have orders to retrieve this child.  
|  **YURI**  
No.  
|  **YURI**  
No, no.   
|  **YURI**  
No, no, no—  
|  **FELIX**  
Yuri. Get it together.  
|  **YURI**  
I wasn’t supposed to leave our room! My mom said not to leave our—!  
|  **FELIX**  
Calm down!  
|  **YURI**  
No!  
|  **GWENDAL**  
Lower your sword. I have no cause to start a conflict with the East.  
|  **FELIX**  
This boy is under the jurisdiction of Fraldarius territory.  
|  **GWENDAL**  
Felix Fraldarius, this boy is a ward of Rowe.  
|  **FELIX**  
This boy has a mother.  
|  **GWENDAL**  
Your father will not approve of you raising a sword against a Knight of Rowe.  
|  **YURI**  
Wait.  
|  **YURI**  
You’re…  
|  **YURI**  
You’re really a Fraldarius?  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m—  
|  **FELIX**  
Fuck.  
  
Yuri is backing away.

|  **FELIX**  
Yuri, I’m not—I mean, I am, but don’t—  
---|---  
  
Yuri bolts.

|  **FELIX**  
Yeah. That tracks.  
---|---  
  
Gwendal shoves Felix to the side, smiting him against the wall, and barrels down the hall after Yuri. Felix takes the brunt hit but bounces back. He catches his balance and follows.

|  **FELIX**  
_Yuri!_  
---|---  
  
He loses sight of them around a corner. When he overtakes it, he is met with the same empty corridor as before. Other than the occasional distant, hushed moan, it is empty.

|  **FELIX**  
That’s impossible.   
---|---  
  
He charges towards the doors nearest to him and shoves them open.

|  **FELIX**  
Yuri? Yuri!  
---|---  
  
Yuri is nowhere to be seen. Most of the rooms are empty. A few are locked, and when he forces them open he is met with intangible, blurry figures in the act of intercourse. They do not react to his presence.

|  **FELIX**  
...Excuse me.   
---|---  
  
Yuri is nowhere to be seen but Felix makes his way down the hall, checking one door after another. He slams another locked one open and—

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Hey, hey. No more. I’m at capacity here.  
---|---  
  
A red shock of hair pops up out of a sea of fawning women. A giggle spreads like a wave over them.

|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain?  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Felix!  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Oh, wow, man. This is…  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Exactly what it looks like. I don’t have an excuse.  
  
More giggles. The women are all barely dressed and encircling Sylvain on a low couch. They are as indeterminate and faceless as the ones he had seen in the rooms previous. Hands slide up Sylvain’s naked chest and he’s smiling, large and pleased with himself.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
I don’t suppose I can offer you a midnight friend to smooth all this over.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
What are you doing.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
C’mon, I know your tastes are a little broader than mine but you’re not a prude.  
  
The women laugh again on cue. Felix shrugs off the sound and steps into the room.

|  **FELIX**  
You have a wife.  
---|---  
  
The cacophony of laughter continues. Felix grows used to the sound, and glares at Sylvain.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Haha. Hahaha.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Hah.  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
...  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
...Hah.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Why are you looking at me like you’re serious?  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re married. To Ingrid.   
  
Sylvain untwines his arms from the women around him and sits forward. One of the women murmurs something in his ear and he grins.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Your indifference is appreciated, but I’m not married.   
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Felix is just trying to make a scene. Isn’t that right, Felix?  
  
Felix looks over his shoulder at the door. Yuri is out there, somewhere, in trouble. Sylvain is here, now, waist deep in women and greedily eating at his time.

|  **FELIX**  
Get up. Get dressed. We’re leaving.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
And deny all these ladies a good show?  
  
A murmur of dissent from the crowd.

|  **FELIX**  
You. Are. _Married._  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
I’m not. But in your defense, after tonight this may be the closest I’ve ever been to settling down with a gal.  
|  **FELIX**  
You have a child!  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
And if my crest catches inside any of these lovely ladies, you might just be looking at the next Margravine Gautier.  
  
Cheers, and giggles, and more hands up his chest, his legs, his war-scarred skin.

|  **FELIX**  
None of these women are real.  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Ouch. This is why you can’t find a wife.  
|  **FELIX**  
That is not what I meant and you know it.   
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain. None of this is real.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Oooh. Philosophical. Women love an introspective man.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
They love my dick more, though.   
  
Felix doesn’t bother to listen to the repetitive laugh track that echoes across the room. He charges forward. Women scramble out from under his path to avoid being trampled. He makes contact with Sylvain, pressing his shield against his chest and pinning him to the couch.

|  **FELIX**  
I already found Ingrid. You were no help, per usual.  
---|---  
  
Felix does not let up on the pressure. His head does a sweep of the room.

|  **FELIX**  
You’re better than this. Where is your lance?  
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Between my legs, where the Goddess granted it.   
|  **FELIX**  
I thought we were past this. Using women. Stuffing voids. Ingrid would have never asked to marry you if you were not past this.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Felix, my dear and oldest friend. If Ingrid asked to marry me the only void I’d be stuffing is the Galatea treasury.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re disgusting.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
You’re jealous.  
  
Laughter. Sylvain’s is harsh, intense, and uncharacteristic. Felix puts his full weight on the shield and pushes off of Sylvain, back onto his feet. He turns, short on time and having wasted enough on his best friend. He will come back for Sylvain. Later, when he’s certain that Yuri is safe.

|  **YURI**  
I told you he was an idiot.   
---|---  
  
Yuri—Felix is certain it’s Yuri—stands in the doorway. He’s leaned up against it, freshfaced and seemingly bored. His makeup is even brighter on teenage eyes.

|  **FELIX**  
Yuri.   
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Hi, friend.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re okay.  
  
Yuri _winks_ at him.

|  **YURI**  
Sorry about the drama.  
---|---  
  
Yuri slinks into the room. He surveys the scene, nods to a few of the ladies.

|  **YURI**  
Two dozen girls a night and he doesn’t even get paid.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
You’re lucky your father’s rich, Gautier. This isn’t any way to run a respectable business.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Who’re you.  
|  **YURI**  
Yuri. I take it you don’t remember me, then?  
|  **FELIX**  
Are you… awake.  
|  **YURI**  
Awake?  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re aware we’re in some kind of fantasy.   
|  **YURI**  
Is that what we’re calling it? Yes. I am aware, but very close to losing myself yet again.  
|  **YURI**  
So I suggest you escort me out of here before I get myself into further trouble, hm?  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Yeah, Felix, let the man show you a good time.  
|  **FELIX**  
If you’re safe then I’m not leaving Sylvain.  
|  **YURI**  
Aw, were you worried about me? I was a cute kiddo, wasn’t I?  
|  **YURI**  
We’ll come back for the Margrave. He seems preoccupied. I need your assistance now.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Go on, Felix. Enjoy yourself for once.  
  
Yuri takes Felix by the arm and begins to pull him out of the room. Felix keeps his eyes on Sylvain even as he’s tugged back. He sees the women settle like birds to crumb around Sylvain, yet again. Yuri shoves Felix into the hall and slams the door.

|  **YURI**  
Excellent. Hello. Hi. Good to see you haven’t been stabbed or seduced or whatever our captors are seeking from us.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Same to you.  
|  **YURI**  
Yes.  
|  **FELIX**  
...Are you okay?  
|  **YURI**  
Okay?  
|  **FELIX**  
You seem.   
|  **FELIX**  
Manic.   
|  **YURI**  
Ah. Yes. I’m fine. Quick question: can you punch me?  
|  **FELIX**  
Punch you?  
|  **YURI**  
Don’t be such a gentleman, Felix. I’ve taken a full hit from you before.   
|  **FELIX**  
Why?  
|  **YURI**  
Because every inch of me inconceivably wants to crawl back to Count Rowe and beg for his forgiveness and asylum and let him know that, actually, yes, I do want to be a good, hardworking knight for your family and marry your eldest daughter and inject my crest back into your fancy family bloodstream.  
|  **YURI**  
I would literally rather be suckerpunched by a spoiled brat than be subject to this… What did you call it? Fantasy?  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes. You have to fight it.  
|  **YURI**  
What do you think I’m doing?  
  
Yuri waves a hand at his face.

|  **YURI**  
At your leisure.  
---|---  
  
Felix shakes out a palm. He hesitates, but Yuri nods. He slams a fist into the younger man’s left cheek. His crest does not trigger. Yuri buckles at the waist and stays there, a hand popping up to cradle his face.

|  **YURI**  
Fuck. You’re strong.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
You asked.   
|  **YURI**  
Oh. That didn’t help at all.   
|  **FELIX**  
_What?_ Then why did you ask me to do it?  
|  **YURI**  
Hypothesis. You can pinch yourself in dreams to wake up, can’t you?  
|  **FELIX**  
Has anyone ever actually done that?  
|  **YURI**  
…  
|  **YURI**  
That’s a fair point, Fraldarius. Onto the next plan.  
  
Yuri rights himself and begins trying the doors down the hall from Sylvain’s room. The first one is locked, but the second pops open without fight.

|  **FELIX**  
What is this new plan?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
You lock me in here so I don’t get the urge to throw a big, happy tea party with my adopted siblings that may or may not culminate in marrying my sister.  
|  **FELIX**  
Your siblings are here? In this… specific patch of fog?  
|  **YURI**  
Patch of what?  
|  **FELIX**  
Long story. I’m not locking you in here. I need your help.   
|  **YURI**  
I’m about to lose myself. I can feel it sinking its teeth into me.  
|  **FELIX**  
You can fight it.  
|  **YURI**  
I don’t know what you’re doing to stay so in control of yourself but I’ve had a very sanitized origin story implemented into my brain and I’m not too keen on seeing the man it produces.   
|  **FELIX**  
It’s only been ten minutes tops since you ran away from me. What happened to you?  
|  **YURI**  
You’re looking for temporal logic in this situation?  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m looking for help.  
  
Yuri shakes his head at him and ducks into the empty room. Felix watches him riffle through a chest of drawers with confidence until he finds a spare key tucked into a bottom drawer. He spins it around his finger, catching it in the palm of his hand.

|  **YURI**  
You won’t have much time. The other me I want so desperately to be isn’t so dull that he’s forgotten how to pick locks.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
You have to fight it. How did you beat it back to find me?  
|  **YURI**  
I thought about the two charming church officials I killed to get kicked out of House Rowe. It worked. For a while.  
|  **FELIX**  
_You killed church officials?_  
|  **YURI**  
My backstory is long and arduous and not worth your pity. I’m going to lock the door from the inside and slip the key beneath it. Be a dear and keep it out of the hands of my pursuers, won’t you?  
  
Yuri ushers Felix back and shuts the door. Felix hears it lock from the inside.

|  **FELIX**  
Wait. I can help.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Because you were such a big help already.   
|  **FELIX**  
I should have protected you. More. Better.   
|  **YURI**  
That was a heavily dramatized reenactment of how I came to House Rowe. Don’t lose sleep.  
|  **FELIX**  
You were terrified.  
|  **YURI**  
Yes, well. The reality of the matter is that I sold myself to Count Rowe for my mother’s monetary security when I was fourteen. It was a consensual transaction and, at the time, I wished I had done it sooner.   
|  **YURI**  
So you don’t have to feel so bad about poor, sweet, baby Yuri running for his life. It was purely metaphoric in nature. This place plays on deepseeded emotions, heightens them to a point of farce, and then uses them to manipulate subservience. Or at least, that’s what I’ve gathered.  
|  **YURI**  
The boring truth to cling to is that we were all standard, grown adults carrying on about ourselves before this, and we will be so again.  
  
A key slides beneath the door.

|  **YURI**  
Now then. Do you know how to end this fantasy? Since you seem privy to strands of information I do not currently have.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m… not sure.   
|  **YURI**  
Rescue me, won’t you, Fraldarius? I could use one.  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t know what to do.  
|  **YURI**  
Not even an inkling?  
|  **FELIX**  
I have an idea. But I’m not sure if it’s the right thing.   
|  **YURI**  
And what’s that?  
|  **FELIX**  
Kill Dimitri. The one ruling this fantasy, I mean. I don’t think it’s the real Dimitri.   
|  **FELIX**  
It worked before. Twice.   
|  **YURI**  
Ah.  
|  **YURI**  
Kill your lover. That’s distressing.  
|  **FELIX**  
He is not my lover.  
|  **YURI**  
Not at the moment it sounds like.  
|  **FELIX**  
This one, he’s different. He didn’t threaten me. The others did.  
|  **YURI**  
That very well may be the case, Felix. But if you know how to resolve this I am going to encourage you to do so at any cost.   
|  **YURI**  
You’ve seen the state Gautier’s in.   
|  **FELIX**  
I have.   
|  **YURI**  
Leave me. Leave him. Find Dimitri. Fix this.  
  
Felix leans down and picks up the key from the floor. He palms it, sliding it into his pocket.

|  **FELIX**  
Okay. I will.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
And Felix?  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes?  
|  **YURI**  
Sir Gwendal is still looking for me, and I am developing this terribly incessant itch to put a baby in my sister.   
|  **YURI**  
Please hurry.   
  
Felix abandons him without a goodbye. He strides past Yuri’s locked door and Sylvain’s heavy breathing and he makes his way down the hall. Each corner produces a near identical hall but he retraces his steps until he feels like he is roughly in the same place he started at. He has no idea if that’s correct. Time and space do not seem to follow any standard logic, here. 

Gwendal stands in front of him. He is tall and broad, an impenetrable wall filling the hall.

|  **FELIX**  
I don’t even know what to say to you. This isn't real? Sure. That’s worked so well so far.   
---|---  
|  **GWENDAL**  
Where is the Rowe boy.  
|  **FELIX**  
I don’t know. I’m busy.   
|  **GWENDAL**  
—!  
  
Felix tackles him. Gwendal is surprised enough by the recklessness of the action that he steps back, startled disposition and heavy armor throwing him off-balance. They crash to the floor and Felix launches himself off of Gwendal’s breastplate and forward.

|  **GWENDAL**  
You fool! The young ward needs our help!  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I said I’m busy! I have to kill the King!  
  
Felix bolts down the hall and starts pulling on doors. Empty, empty, locked, empty. He abandons sections at random and flits to new ones. There is no organization to his search. Only instinct, and a slight sliver of reluctance. Gwendal does not follow him despite his proclamations of regicide. Felix hears the clunk of his armor fading in the opposite direction, more concerned with Yuri than Felix. 

A door flies open almost too easily and Dimitri is there. As he had been, as he wanted to be. He rests beneath thick blankets and blinks open an eye.

|  **DIMITRI**  
You have returned.   
---|---  
  
Felix gently clicks the door shut behind him as he enters.

|  **DIMITRI**  
You have come to kill me, like the others.   
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Like that mindless beast in Enbarr.   
  
Felix does not say anything. There is a dresser in Dimitri’s room. Felix stops himself beside it. When he looks into the mirror he hopes to see Annette. He waits. There are no flickered versions of himself, here. There is no Annette. Instead, he sees a dimly lit reflection of his face. He pauses.

|  **FELIX**  
Why am I wearing makeup?  
---|---  
  
Dimitri snorts from beneath his blankets.

|  **DIMITRI**  
You did not notice?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
No, I didn’t. Have I been walking around like this the entire time?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I thought you dressed yourself to impress me.   
|  **FELIX**  
No, I would never—  
|  **FELIX**  
Wait. Did it impress you?  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I am in no state to appraise appearances, Felix.  
|  **FELIX**  
This is mortifying.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Don’t feel such shame. Come, lie down with me.   
|  **FELIX**  
I came here to kill you.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I know. But is there any rush?  
  
Felix, to his great disgust, pauses to consider the thought.

|  **FELIX**  
There is. Thanks to you, presumably.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
To be desired is both a curse and a blessing.   
|  **FELIX**  
Sylvain and Yuri are trapped in what I can only describe as well-tailored personal hells. Each with their own looming deadline for disaster.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Yuri?  
|  **FELIX**  
You don’t know him and, to be honest, that’s for the best.   
  
Dimitri laughs a small, hoarse laugh.

|  **DIMITRI**  
I missed your tongue.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
That’s a weighted sentence,   
|  **DIMITRI**  
It was intended to be. Lie down, won’t you?  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re not going to seduce me looking like that.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
What, tired?  
|  **FELIX**  
Wartorn.  
  
Dimitri’s smile falls.

|  **FELIX**  
I don’t know if you remember, but outside of this little bubble you’re the noble and courageous leader of Faerghus, champion of the continental war, and my very former lover.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I see.  
  
He nods, curling deeper beneath his covers.

|  **DIMITRI**  
You’ll make it quick, then?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
If there’s one thing my father taught me, it’s how to make a kill quick.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Please do not bring up your father.  
|  **FELIX**  
He’s dead.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You always did know how to ruin a perfectly good moment.   
  
Felix unsheaths his sword. Dimitri offers no reaction.

|  **DIMITRI**  
You’re sure you wouldn’t rather just lie down?  
---|---  
  
There’s a youth to Dimitri, lack of eye and all, when Felix settles a swordpoint at him. Felix watches the slim tip of metal waver, his good swordhand shaking. Dimitri looks past it. He gazes at Felix, heartbroken, and not defending himself.

|  **FELIX**  
Guard your face or something.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
That’s your job, Felix.  
|  **FELIX**  
Dammit, boar. Fight back.  
  
He presses the sword to Dimitri’s jugular. When Dimitri blinks up at him it is as if honey sinks over Felix’s brain. Something slow and heavy settles on his skull, pressing down on his shoulders like a paternal gesture.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Don’t hurt me.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I have to.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You don’t.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
You can stay right here. Love me, hold me, lie with me.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
Marry me.   
  
Felix’s blade dips down. Felix realizes it is not falling, but rather Dimitri has gripped a hand around the dull edge of his sword and is pressing it back. He pushes the weapon away. Felix lets him.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Time and space are not straightforward, here.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
It will not hurt anyone to spend a final night with one another.  
  
Felix’s knee is on the mattress before he can stop himself. He wants to kill Dimitri. He wants Dimitri to hold him in the center of a chaotic war and never allow him to leave the eye of its storm. His sword clatters the ground and he does not feel himself drop it. His shield follows and it is his own deft fingers that undo the brace. 

Dimitri’s hands find his lower back and usher him down, into the soft mattress, and close, into the sharp planes of Dimitri’s body. Felix is dressed in his full armor but he swears he can feel Dimitri’s heart beat right against his own.

|  **DIMITRI**  
You look so tired.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
|  **DIMITRI**  
I’m so sorry. Please, rest.  
  
Felix’s eyelids dip down as if on command. Dimitri’s hand thumbs at his neck, then over his cheek. Felix leans into his touch. Feels more at peace than he has felt in years.

|  **FELIX**  
…’m sorry.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Sorry? Whatever could you feel sorry for.  
|  **FELIX**  
Leaving you.  
  
Chapped lips press to Felix’s own and his head is tilted back for a deeper angle. He loses himself in the sensation of Dimitri. Dimitri. Dimitri, Dimitri, Dimitri—

Behind him, a door slams open.

|  **ASHE**  
Oh!  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Your Highness and, uh.  
|  **ASHE**  
Felix.  
  
Felix’s body feels lightheaded and lazy but he manages to pry his head away from Dimitri and look over his shoulder. A column of lamplight spreads into the room from the outside hall. Ashe stands in the doorway. Yuri—a child, sleepy and safe—is scooped in his right arm. Felix attempts to blink away his drowsiness.

|  **YURI**  
We aren’t supposed to be in here!  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Shhh. Hush your voice, little one.  
|  **FELIX**  
...Ashe?  
|  **FELIX**  
What are you…  
  
Dimitri’s arm draws tight around him. Felix feels the Boar’s chest vibrate in an almost-silent growl.

|  **ASHE**  
Felix. Great. I’m so glad we found you. Can you hold on for a few minutes?   
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Me and Ingrid are kind of dealing with a lot right now.   
  
Felix’s head falls back against the pillow. Dimitri raises a quilt to cover his shoulder.

|  **ASHE**  
Alright, yes. You get some sleep. I’m going to—  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Gwendal! Stop! It’s me!  
  
In his haze, Felix hears the sound of ceaseless armor chasing after the fading voice of Ashe. 

Time passes. The door remains open but Felix has no desire to leave the warmth of the covers, of Dimitri, in exchange for the cold, stone world beyond the mattress. He thinks he hears commotion. Yelling and metallic clanging. At every uptick of action Dimitri holds him tighter. He whispers pleas for Felix to stay, to be his. The night drips by at an indeterminate speed and Felix relishes in the freedom it grants him to relax, to give in.

|  **INGRID**  
...He’s in here?  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Yes. Right here.  
  
He hears Ashe, and Ingrid. A glass of something shameful but selfish tips in his chest when they step inside Dimitri’s room. He wishes they would leave.

|  **YURI**  
Well doesn’t this look cozy.  
---|---  
  
Yuri’s voice is older, now. The Yuri that Felix knows firsthand. Felix’s shoulders rise in defense. He wishes Yuri was not here most of all.

|  **DIMITRI**  
What business do you have in the royal quarters?  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
From what Miss Galatea has informed me, we’re now certified kingslayers.  
|  **INGRID**  
He’s not the—  
|  **YURI**  
Ethically minded kingslayers intent on rescuing the One True-er King, excuse me.  
  
Felix struggles to sit up. His mind swirls.

|  **FELIX**  
I’ll protect you.  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
I’ll stop them.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
Oh, sweet thing. You don’t have to do anything for me but lie here and be at peace.  
  
Dimitri’s hands are on him again. He allows himself to be adjusted like a marionette. Tucked back down into the covers, on his side, facing the intruders. Dimitri spoons against his back and a too-calloused hand drags up Felix’s thighs, around his ass, over his waist. They find the dagger clipped to his belt and pull it from its sheath.

Dimitri’s hand tugs at his hair. Felix does not fight the stretch of his neck, nor the blade that is pressed against it.

|  **DIMITRI**  
Leave us.  
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
—Dimitri!  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Leave us, or we will depart together.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Fuck.  
  
Felix notices Sylvain. He’s naked, as he had been before, but he looks significantly more exhausted. His arm is draped over Ingrid in support and he has bite marks on his shoulders and up his thighs. There is a discomfort to his posture that Felix knows, feels. Ingrid grips him tightly. She calls out, as serious as he has ever heard her:

|  **INGRID**  
Dimitri.  
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
Your Highness.   
  
The blade cuts closer to Felix’s throat but it’s fine, he thinks. It’s better than being dragged back into the wasteland beyond Dimitri’s room. It’s better than Dimitri dying alone.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Whoa there.  
---|---  
|  **DIMITRI**  
Leave us to our peace.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Dimitri, don’t do this. You’re not yourself.  
|  **INGRID**  
We’re backing up. You see us, don’t you? Put the blade down.  
|  **ASHE**  
We’re going.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Felix, buddy. You need to wake up right now.  
|  **DIMITRI**  
_Leave us._  
  
Ingrid, Sylvain propped on her shoulder, and Ashe all shuffle back. Yuri does not. Yuri stares at Felix, face unreadable.

|  **SYLVAIN**  
Dimitri. Felix is… Felix. You would never do this.   
---|---  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Please don’t do this.  
|  **FELIX**  
Leave.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Felix! You have to fight!  
|  **FELIX**  
Leave me.  
|  **FELIX**  
I want this.   
|  **SYLVAIN**  
That’s insane.  
|  **FELIX**  
I want him. I only want him.  
|  **SYLVAIN**  
Dammit, Felix. Only you would be nostalgic for wartime Dimitri.   
|  **FELIX**  
I said leave!  
|  **YURI**  
Aw.  
|  **FELIX**  
...Fuck off.  
|  **YURI**  
This would be cute if it wasn’t a suicide pact.   
|  **FELIX**  
Why are you even here?  
  
Yuri laughs. Dimitri growls.

|  **YURI**  
Hurting the people that work for you is bad business, Your Highness.   
---|---  
|  **INGRID**  
Yuri, step back. Now.   
|  **DIMITRI**  
Do as the Knight says, Yuri. I will not hesitate.   
|  **YURI**  
I won’t give you the chance.   
  
Yuri points two fingers at Dimitri, an eye closing to aim and his thumb popping up like a bowsight.

|  **FELIX**  
_—No!_  
---|---  
  
A bolt of razor-sharp wind, as dangerous as any sword, rockets out of his hand. It hits Dimitri in the chest. It grazes Felix’s shoulder in a splice of pain. Felix can’t see the extent of the damage but he hears Dimitri’s body tense with the impact. 

Dimitri pulls Felix’s head back harsh, and moves to dig the knife into the vulnerable flesh. Felix only sees a flicker of a green crest symbol before Yuri is closer, point-blank, and shooting another bolt of Excalibur directly into the boar king. Felix does not feel the sharp pain of death at his throat that he is expecting. Instead, the dagger falls to the edge of the mattress, and tips over onto the floor. He hears the metallic clatter as it settles against wood. 

Felix does not realize what has happened until the room begins to shake. Dimitri’s body goes slack around him. His gaze drifts back to Yuri, lost and confused.

|  **YURI**  
This is all going to make sense real soon, friend. I promise.   
---|---  
  
Sylvain wraps himself around Ingrid and Yuri gives a firm nod over his shoulder at Ashe. Then, they’re falling. The mattress gives way beneath Felix and what’s left of Dimitri vanishes around him. 

He hits the floor like a thrown doll. He lies there numb and naked and bleeding. He hears stirring around him. Groans of displeasure and noises of concern. He does not move. Even when reality settles cold and painful in his bones, he does not move.

Yuri rolls him over like a lame dog. A hand presses to his shoulder that is white-hot to the touch. He flinches, and tries to pull away, but Yuri’s other arm shoves him back down. 

Felix blinks. He realizes that he is being healed.

|  **YURI**  
You’re alright, friend. Everything’s just fine.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
You back with me?  
  
Felix nods, dumbly. He attempts to lift his head up to look around the dead end corridor he had been swallowed in an indeterminate amount of time before.

|  **INGRID**  
It might take him a second to recapture his bearings. It did for us, at least.   
---|---  
|  **ASHE**  
Are you okay, Yuri?  
|  **YURI**  
I’m fine.   
|  **FELIX**  
You… You two didn’t leave.  
|  **ASHE**  
Did you really think Ingrid would let us?  
  
The back of Felix’s head hits the stone floor harder than he intends. Yuri, without comment, moves to press the healing spell against Felix’s thigh. Felix scrunches his face closed.

|  **FELIX**  
I don’t want to hear it.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
I did not, and will not, say anything.  
|  **FELIX**  
You would.  
|  **YURI**  
I haven’t.  
  
Felix’s gaze lulls to the side and settles on Ingrid. She’s kneeling. Sylvain is curled around her as much as he physically can be. Felix can still see the bite marks and bruises lacing his skin. The Lance of Ruin is on the ground beside them. His head is buried in the crook of her shoulder and Felix can see him whispering something, fast. She shakes her head and strokes at his hair. They clutch each other tighter. 

Beyond the two of them, Felix sees Sir Gwendal stir where he’s splayed across the ground. Beyond him, a collection of nobles of various ages. Yuri notices his attempts to place their confused faces.

|  **YURI**  
I’ll have to introduce you.   
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Your family.  
|  **FELIX**  
One of them, I mean.  
|  **YURI**  
Yes. One of them.  
  
Felix feels strong enough to sit up. Yuri does not fight him, and allows himself to be shoved off Felix’s half-healed thigh.

|  **FELIX**  
Thank you.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Come again?  
|  **FELIX**  
I’m not saying it twice.  
|  **YURI**  
That’s fine. It’s catalogued in my memory now.   
  
Yuri taps his cheek. Felix has no idea how to react.

|  **YURI**  
You’re cleared for duty. Think you can press onward?  
---|---  
|  **FELIX**  
Yes.  
|  **YURI**  
Excellent.  
|  **FELIX**  
You’re really not going to say anything? Not a single thing?  
|  **YURI**  
Even if I was not bound by our truce, I have no reason to mock you.  
|  **YURI**  
I, too, have a very small pool of people I would let gamble with my life.  
|  **FELIX**  
…  
  
Yuri shares a _look_ with Felix. What that look means is beyond his understanding, or at least his willingness to understand.

|  **FELIX**  
We need to arrange an escort for your siblings back to camp. This place is dangerous.  
---|---  
|  **YURI**  
Of course. Shall we?  
  
**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yuri's crest has a 20% proc rate lmaoo

**Author's Note:**

> [I'm all a-twitter.](https://twitter.com/GnatsGonzalez) But I'm new. So you should follow me.


End file.
